Reliving Adventures: The Last Olympian
by agent iz hyper
Summary: Jason, Piper and Leo want to know what happened in the last war - what did Percy do exactly, to make him so popular? So Apollo drops in and hands Rachel The Last Olympian for the trio, Rachel, Annabeth, Connor, Travis, Jake Mason, and Thalia to read. / Abandoned. Sorry!
1. 1 I Go Cruising With Explosives

_Reliving Adventures : Reading The Last Olympian_

_Yes, I know, I shouldn't be starting this when I've got other stories to update, but I had this chapter done already so I wanted to post it up. And I wanted to do them reading this story and The Lost Hero after, so I'll be writing both at the same time, instead of finishing this one then starting on TLH. That'll give me an incentive to keep working on them, seeing as these sort of stories are time-consuming and really frustrating at times._

_I have no intention of abandoning either story, but I might go a while without updating much sometimes (especially when schoolwork is really loaded down on me), but I'll be working on these any time I get free time on the computer. Bear in mind though that I have other stories to work on, as well as school (duh) so this won't be my TOP priority. Though it'll come in close. ;D_

_So without further ado~ read on!_

**DISCLAIMER: Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own PJO, though I sure wish I do.**

**(Oh, and, to state the obvious – all bold belongs to the genius Rick Riordan. And – there's spoilers for those who haven't read/finished this book. So unless you don't mind them, turn back.)**

Chapter One: I go cruising with explosives

Leo was heading back from Bunker 9, walking alongside Jason and Piper near the lake. The sun was almost nearing the horizon, and the sky glowed with brilliant shades of oranges and reds. Leo still couldn't get it around his head that Apollo _pulled_ the sun with his chariot across the sky, even though Will Solace had explained that it wasn't actually the sun he was pulling.

Man, thinking about it gave him a head ache. He decided it'll be safer for his brain cells to just tune back to what Jason was saying.

"…was wondering what he did exactly."

"Yeah," Piper agreed, biting her lip. "I asked Annabeth once but she didn't seem too keen to talk about it. I don't blame her."

Leo frowned, confused. "Who're you guys talking about?"

"Percy Jackson," Jason told him.

Leo nodded comprehensively. "Oh, yeah, him. Popular dude. He sounds like you."

"Me?" Now it was Jason's time to looks confused.

"Yeah, y'know, the whole fulfilling prophecies and going on these world-saving, war-ending quests and everyone 'round here looking up to him and stuff…"

"I thought so too," Piper said. Jason looked sort of uncomfortable.

"Yeah, well… I'd seriously like to know some of the stuff he did." Jason paused, staring out over the lake with a troubled look in his eyes. "It'll be good to know if he's got what it takes to… well, survive at the Roman camp. Though I'm pretty sure he does."

"Bro, now you're just giving off pessimistic vibes," Leo groaned, though he felt sort of uneasy too at what Jason had said. It would be bad if the Romans didn't like Percy.

"That… doesn't sound good," grimaced Piper.

Leo reckoned Jason must've been a _real_ pro at optimistic talks in his former life. The guy's words practically oozed cheerful stuff.

Somewhere in the distance, the conch horn blew.

"Well, on that happy thought, let's go to dinner," Leo grinned.

xXx

Rachel was up in her cozy cave, thinking over a few things – mainly the events that had taken place since the 'new trio' had come to camp – when a familiar voice came from outside her door-well, curtains.

"Anybody home?"

Rachel sat up expectantly as Apollo stepped in with his usual sunglasses and bright, cocky grin.

"Hi Apollo. What's up?" she asked curiously. The Sun God hardly visited – he had a lot on his plate usually anyway.

"Thought I'd drop by with a little… ah, _gift_," he said mysteriously, owning up to his mystifying, future-telling side. The red-headed oracle raised an eyebrow. He sighed. "Fine, I'll get to the point." He held out two big books for her to take, which she did, puzzled.

"You dropped by to give me… books?"

"I know, shocking, isn't it?" Apollo grinned. "But these aren't _any_ books."

Rachel looked down and saw the title of the first one – "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian? So – these are –"

"Stories about Percy, yep! Courtesy to the Muses, of course."

"And… The Lost Hero? Is that the more recent events?" she guessed, checking the other book. Apollo nodded.

"Yeah. The new kids – Jason, Piper, Leo – wanted to know about the whole war and stuff. And, seeing as I'm so wise and All-Knowing, I got these for them!" The cocky grin grew even wider as Apollo inflated his own ego even more.

Rachel chuckled despite herself at the god's predictable behaviour. "Thanks for these. I guess I could get Annabeth too – it'll help to know what those three did on their quest."

"Right, then, I'll leave you to it," he nodded, making his way out again, before pausing. "Oh yeah, and, remember to mention how the ever-awesome Apollo got them." With a last laugh, he left in a flash of golden light – no doubt to return to whatever important duties he'd neglected for this – leaving an amused Rachel behind.

xXx

After they ate, the three friends were just meeting near the forest when a redheaded girl came up to them, a book in her hand.

Leo recognized her as the mist-spilling, future-telling Oracle girl. Rachel.

He hoped she wouldn't start oozing green mist now, but when she spoke, her voice was perfectly normal.

"Hey," Rachel smiled. "Can I talk to you guys? Something came in just now…"

"Um, sure," Jason replied, puzzled.

Rachel glanced at the book in her hands then looked back at them. "Well, I heard that you wanted to know about Percy and what he did in the war…"

"How'd you hear that? Is that like an oracle thing?"

"Seriously, Leo," Piper shook her head.

"What?" Leo shot her an innocent look. It was a perfectly reasonable question!

"Anyway," Rachel continued as though he hadn't interrupted. "I got this book – from Apollo, by the way –" (the sun seemed to brighten up a little, as though the sun god was acknowledging the credit) "and it's basically Percy's… last year here, leading up to the final battle against Kronos and his guys."

"Whoa, wait, so we get to know everything that happened?" Jason asked, a grin forming on his face.

"Pretty much. I haven't read it, so I'm not sure where it begins," she replied.

Piper asked, "So who will we be reading it—"

Then two voices from the trees behind them cried out, cutting her off.

"Ouch! That's my hand, you idiot!"

"_I'm_ an idiot? You just gave us away, bro!"

They looked back to see the two Hermes brothers tripping out from behind the cover of the bushes.

"Connor, Travis," Rachel sighed. "What were you doing?"

"Duh, listening in," Connor stated the obvious, rolling his eyes and rubbing his hand.

"Sounds interesting," his brother added. "Can we read it too?"

Leo grinned. From the short time he'd been here (not counting the days he was on the quest), he'd deducted that the kids of Hermes were absolute clowns. Definitely his type of people.

Though his own siblings had a wicked sense of humor too, after the 'curse' started to seemingly lift and things were working better. Even Nyssa, who's sarcastically witty side showed more and more every time Leo spoke to her.

"There a party going on here?" a familiar voice said from ahead. Jake Mason was heading towards them, curious.

Rachel held up the book and told them what it was and why she got it.

"Okay, look, we'll go down to the river and read it there. Is that okay with everyone?" she asked. They all nodded.

As they walked down, Leo muttered to Jason and Piper, "I didn't know being the Oracle makes you psychic."

Jason chuckled and even Piper gave an amused smile.

When they got there, they saw Rachel was speaking to Annabeth, who nodded at something she said and looked at the book interestedly.

They got to the lake and settled down in a circle. Rachel spoke up.

"Annabeth decided to join us," she started, but Jason interrupted.

"Hey, wait, do you mind telling us the basics? What happened before?" he asked with a curious frown. Piper and Leo leaned in, eager to hear what happened.

Annabeth sighed and looked down at the ground, then back at the trio. "Well, I'd guess that this book starts off after the Labyrinth quest, so-"

"Labyrinth?" Leo piped up, interested. "What labyrinth?

"I was getting to that."

"Right, sorry."

"Okay, well… you know that the 'Big Three' – Zeus, Poseidon and Hades – made a pact after the Second World War, right?"

They nodded hesitantly, not knowing all the details.

"Well, basically, they swore on the River Styx not to sire any more children because the demigods of the Big Three turned out to be so powerful they often caused wars, and their scent was so powerful it led many monsters to them and anyone near them."

"But the pact was broken," Piper remembered.

Annabeth nodded. "Yes. Poseidon sired Percy, who he kept a secret. Hades had two children – Nico and Bianca – from years before, but he hid them in this hotel and casino-"

"The god of the dead hid his kids in a casino?" Leo said, raising an eyebrow.

Piper sent him an '_idiot_' look. "Leo, let her continue."

"Alright, alright, sorry."

The others chuckled and Annabeth continued.

"It's a long story, but the casino works the same way as monster islands and all that; time goes past normally on the outside but if you're in there, then a day could be a week or two. So by the time Nico and Bianca got out, they were well over seventy years old, technically, but they were still pretty much the same age they used to be."

"Must've been a shock to them," Jason muttered.

"So, anyway, hardly anyone knew they were Hades' children. And, of course, Zeus sired Thalia."

"And Jason," added Leo unnecessarily.

"And Jason," agreed Annabeth. "But obviously we didn't know that until he came here. Well, Thalia actually sacrificed her life to save me and Grover and… Luke, when we were running from some monsters right before we got to Camp."

"She what?" Jason looked shocked. "Wait, is this when she got turned into a tree?"

Leo and Piper stared at him. "Your sister turned into a tree?" Piper said, eyebrows flying up. "But how-?"

"Zeus took pity on her," Annabeth explained. "He preserved her life in the tree on the border and it protected the camp's borders ever since. We got into camp safely. So the gods thought the problem of the whole breaking-the-oath thing was over. Then, the year Percy came, Zeus' master bolt was stolen."

Leo looked at her weirdly. "Um… how exactly do you steal a bolt of lightning…?"

"It's not just a bolt – it's his chief weapon. Colossal dynamite. I'll explain later on, it's not important now." Thunder rumbled in the distance. "I mean, it _is_ important, but… yeah, anyway," Annabeth added hurriedly before Zeus got too offended. "That got Zeus and Poseidon arguing and fighting – Zeus held his brother in blame for stealing it, and of course Poseidon refused the claim. Then Percy came and got claimed."

"And all Hades broke loose," Travis added in helpfully.

Annabeth ignored him. "Well, that pretty much increased the fighting ten-fold. Not only did Poseidon break the oath too, but Zeus was convinced Percy had stolen his bolt for him. It was… disastrous, to say the least."

"But why was it such a big deal about the children of the Big Three?" Piper asked. "It sounds like there's more to the reason than what you said."

Annabeth grimaced, as did the other demigods. "There was… a Prophecy made, about the first child of the Big Three to turn sixteen. He or she would hold the responsibility of making a decision that would either send Olympus to ruins or save us all."

Leo let out a low whistle. "No pressure or anything."

"Yeah, well, that's why. Thalia would've been the child of the prophecy, but a day before she turned sixteen, she joined the Hunters of Artemis, so now she's immortally fifteen."

"And so, all the pressure goes to poor Percy's shoulders," Connor said with a heavy sigh.

Annabeth glared at him.

"Shutting up…"

"So, what happened about the master bolt?" Jason pressed. Annabeth outlined their quest, trying not to mention Luke too much, but Leo caught on after she was done with the trip to the Underworld.

"The shoes… that Luke guy gave them to Percy, right?" he said slowly. "So… he's a-"

"Yes, he was on Kronos' side," Annabeth confirmed, looking down.

"He was your brother?" Jason asked the Stoll brothers tentatively.

They scowled – an expression unfamiliar to their faces. "_Brother_… That's what we thought," muttered Travis bitterly.

Jason left the subject.

Annabeth went on to explain their other quests, the other campers (and Rachel) adding in details where she wasn't sure what happened. She mentioned a few times about a spy at camp who was reporting to Kronos, but she never named her. It was a painful topic to go in to. But something sparked in Piper's memory.

"The spy… it was Silena, wasn't it?" she said softly, Drew's words coming back to her, all those days ago.

The other campers looked at her in surprise.

"How…?" Annabeth started.

Piper grimaced. "Drew mentioned it, when I came to camp… but… Silena wasn't bad, was she?" she added, eyebrows creased.

They all shook their heads sadly. "Silena was a hero, as much as Beckendorf…" Jake trailed off.

Leo looked up at him; he hadn't thought about it, but Beckendorf's death might be in this book. He didn't know if he really wanted to hear it. But still…

"Well then, I think that's all the important things," Annabeth said.

"Alright, so the war's about to start, and Kronos… got a new body for himself… using Luke," clarified Jason, looking a bit sick at the thought. So did the others, judging by their grimaces.

"Okay, so," Rachel said, looking around, "Who wants to read first?"

"I'll read," Jason offered, getting the book from her. He glanced at the cover page. "_Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian_. Who's the last Olympian?"

"I guess you'll find out," Rachel shrugged.

"Alright then…"

**I GO CRUISING WITH** **EXPLOSIVES**

**The end of the world began when a pegasus landed on the hood of my car.**

"Dramatic start much?" Travis grinned.

"That doesn't happen to all demigods, does it?" Leo asked in a serious voice. "'Cause that'll be a waste of a good car."

"Hey wait a sec…" Jake frowned, turning to Rachel and Annabeth. "Is this when…"

"Oh," Rachel bit her lip. "Yeah. It is."

Most of the demigods who knew what they were talking about frowned sadly.

"Whoa, wait, what's going on?" Leo asked, not liking their expressions. Jake shot his brother a grimace and said, "Beckendorf."

"Oh…" Already?

There was a bit of a silence then Jason decided it'll be better to read on.

**Technically I wasn't supposed to be driving because I wouldn't turn sixteen for another week, but my mom and step-dad, Paul, took my friend Rachel and me**

"You?" Connor asked, looking at Rachel.

"No, it's this other friend of Percy's called Rachel, duh," Travis smirked.

The others either rolled their eyes or grinned.

**to this private stretch of beach on the South Shore, and Paul let us borrow his Prius for a short spin.**

"Ooh, there something going on between-" Travis started cheekily but shut up when both Rachel and Annabeth glared at him.

Rachel also looked quite anxiously at her friend, worried about her reaction to what was going to happen. Annabeth didn't seem to notice as she asked, "Did Percy have to go in the middle of your trip?"

Rachel nodded.

**Now I know what you're thinking,** _**wow, that was really irresponsible of him, blah, blah, blah,**___**but Paul knows me pretty well. He's seen me slice up demons and leap out of exploding schools buildings,**

"Wow," Piper said. "Is that an ordinary occurrence for him?"

"Which one? The slicing up demons or the exploding buildings?" Travis asked innocently.

"That's actually pretty normal for Percy," Annabeth smiled reminiscently, ignoring Travis. "He ran into trouble everywhere."

"You can say that again," the others who knew Percy muttered, then exchanged grins.

**so he probably figured taking a car a few hundred yards wasn't exactly the most dangerous thing I'd ever done.**

"I'm guessing he won't be too pleased when he gets it back," Leo chuckled.

**Anyway, Rachel and I were driving along. It was a hot August day. Rachel's red hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore a white blouse over her swimsuit. I'd never seen her in anything but ratty T-shirts and paint-splattered jeans before, and she looked like a million golden drachmas.**

The Stoll brothers smirked but were smart enough not to say anything. Annabeth raised an eyebrow at her friend, whose cheeks were pink.

"He just thought of me as a friend, you know," she told her. "And besides, it's already happened…"

Annabeth sighed and nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

"**Oh, pull up right there." She told me. We parked on a ridge overlooking the Atlantic. The sea is always one of my favorite places,** **but today it was especially nice-glittery green and smooth as glass, as though my dad was keeping it calm just for us.**

**My dad, by the way, is Poseidon.** **He can do stuff like that.**

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Annabeth grinned, looking around then, realizing Percy wasn't there, let out a breath in annoyance – probably at herself for letting her guard down.

**"So." Rachel smiled at me. "About that invitation."**

**"Oh… right." I tried to sound excited.**

"He didn't succeed in that very well," Rachel smiled.

"Percy was a bad actor," Travis said, shaking his head disappointedly. "He could've used some of our lessons."

Annabeth glared at him darkly.

"What?"

"_Is_, not _was_," she hissed.

Travis smartly shut his mouth.

**I mean, she'd asked me to her family's vacation house on St. Thomas for three days. I didn't get a lot of offers like that. My family's idea of a fancy vacation was a weekend in a rundown cabin on Long Island with some movie rentals and a couple of frozen pizzas, and here Rachel's folks were willing to let me tag along to the Caribbean.**

"That sounds nice," Piper smiled, albeit a little sadly, thinking of her own dad and the trips they used to take.

Rachel shrugged. "They wouldn't have cared either way."

Piper sent her a questioning look, but Jason read on.

**Besides, I seriously needed a vacation. This summer had been the hardest of my life. The idea of taking a break even for a few days was really tempting.**

"He's lucky he got one," Jake muttered, thinking about all the preparing and the tense atmosphere at camp.

"He needed it, though," Annabeth said softly. "Percy did a lot to help, he deserved a break." She sent Rachel a look while she said this; she still felt pretty bad about the way she acted towards her.

**Still, something big was supposed to go down any day now. I was "on call" for a mission. Even worse, next week was my birthday. There was this prophecy that said when I turned sixteen, bad things would happen.**

"Ooh, harsh," Leo winced.

**"Percy," she said, "I know the timing is bad.****But it's**_**always**_**bad for you, right?" She had a point.**

**"I really want to go," I promised. "It's just-"**

**"The war."**

**I nodded. I didn't like talking about it, but Rachel knew. Unlike most mortals, she could see through the Mist-the magic veil that distorts human vision. **

"Oh, that makes sense," Piper said comprehensively. "I wondered how you could see everything. I thought it was because you're the oracle…"

"No, the oracle thing came to me only recently," Rachel explained. "I could always see through the Mist."

"Some mortals are born like that," Annabeth added to them.

**She'd seen monsters. She'd met some of the other demigods who were fighting the Titans and their allies. She'd even been there last summer when the chopped-up Lord Kronos rose out of his coffin in a terrible new form, and she'd earned my permanent respect by nailing him in the eye with a blue plastic hair brush.**

There was a silence. Then they all (minus Annabeth, who'd been there) burst out laughing.

"You- you chucked a _hairbrush_-" choked out Travis between laughs.

"At Kronos' EYE?" Connor snickered.

"I wish I could've seen that!" Leo laughed.

After they settled down, Jason continued, the grin still on his face.

**She put her hand on my arm. "Just think about it, okay? We don't leave for a couple of days. My dad…"her voice faltered.**

**"Is he giving you a hard time?" I asked. Rachel shook her head in disgust. "He's trying to be**_**nice**_**to me, which is almost worse. He wants me to go to Clarion Ladies Academy in the fall." **

"You don't get on with your dad?" Piper asked her.

Rachel half-shrugged. "Not really. He's… well, he's a rich guy, and he thinks buying me things and all that will make me like him more. No luck." She made a face.

"Oh." Piper wouldn't have guessed she had something in common with the redheaded girl. She was just glad that, in comparison, her dad actually did love her, despite his fame…

**"The school where your mom went?"**

**"It's a stupid finishing school for society girls, all the way in New Hampshire. Can you see me in finishing school?"**

A lot of snorts resounded between the campers and a lot of people said "No" in skeptical tones.

**I admitted the idea sounded pretty dumb. Rachel was into urban art projects and feeding the homeless and going to protest rallies to "Save the Endangered Yellow-bellied Sapsucker" and stuff like that.****I'd never even seen her wear a dress. It was hard to imagine her learning to be a socialite.**

"Well, just so you know, it pretty much sucks," Rachel said lightly, making a disgusted face.

**She sighed. "He thinks if he does a bunch of nice stuff for me, I'll feel guilty and give in."**

**"Which is why he agreed to let me come with you guys on vacation?" **

**"Yes… but Percy, you'd be doing me a huge favor. It would be**_**so**_**much better if you were with us. Besides, there's something I want to talk-" She stopped abruptly.**

**"Something you want to talk about?" I asked. "You mean… so serious we'd have to go to St. Thomas to talk about it?"**

Annabeth raised an eyebrow and was tempted to ask Rachel what exactly that something was, but she thought better of it.

**She pursed her lips. "Look, just forget it for now. Let's pretend we're a couple of normal people. We're out for a drive, and watching the ocean, and it's nice to be together."**

"Normal," Connor said disbelievingly, staring at her. "You're telling _Percy_ to pretend he's _normal_."

"Dude," Travis said, shaking his head. "Those words don't even work in a sentence together!"

"Idiots," Annabeth said, rolling her eyes.

**I could tell something was bothering her, but she put on a brave smile. The sunlight made her hair look like fire.**

**We'd spent a lot of time this summer together.**

Annabeth mumbled something under her breath. That was exactly why she'd been jealous. Though, admittedly, that was rather unfair. Percy had to have some time away from everything.

**I hadn't planned it that way, but the more serious things got at camp, the more I found myself needing to call up Rachel and get away,** **just for some breathing room.**

"You two are close friends?" Piper asked her curiously. Rachel nodded.

**I needed to remind myself that the mortal world was still out there, away from all the monsters using me as their personal punching bag.**

"Yeah, tell those monsters to get their own punching bags!" Travis chuckled. "Just because Percy comes free…"

"No, he comes at a heavy price," Jake corrected him in a serious voice. "The monsters are pretty much dead if they use Percy as a punching bag."

Their friends chuckled.

**"Okay," I said. "Just a normal afternoon and two normal people."**

"Great, now you've delusioned Percy into thinking that too!" Connor groaned dramatically.

"Connor, stop interrupting," Annabeth huffed. "And it's _deluded_, not _delusioned_."

"Sure it is."

**She nodded. "And so… hypothetically, if these two people liked each other, what would it take to get the stupid guy to kiss the girl, huh?"**

Most of them stared at Rachel, who shot Annabeth an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry," Rachel said quietly to her friend. "That was when I thought I liked him… but – you know – it didn't last long anyway."

Annabeth shook away any unwanted thoughts from her head – it was all in the past, and everything had turned out right in the end anyway. _Not everything…_ She scowled at the unbidden thought and looked at Jason so fiercely to start reading that he didn't even wait a heartbeat.

**"Oh. . ." I felt like one of Apollo's sacred cows-slow, dumb, and bright read. "Um. . ."**

"Well, that's not nice," Travis huffed. "There's no need for him to compare himself with the cows…"

"Yeah, it's a bad insult to them!" Connor agreed, making them grin amusedly.

**I can't pretend I hadn't thought about Rachel. She was so much easier to be around than . . . well, some other girls I knew. I didn't have to work hard, or watch what I said, or rack my brain trying to figure out what she was thinking. Rachel didn't hide much. She let you know how she felt.**

**I'm not sure what I would have done next-but I was so distracted, I didn't notice the huge black form swooping down from the sky until four hooves landed in the hood of the Prius with a WUMP-WUMP-CRUNCH!**

"There goes the car," Leo piped in.

_**Hey, boss,**___**said a voice in my head.**_**Nice car!**_

"Um… what?" Piper said slowly, looking confused. So did Jason and Leo.

"Horses were created by Poseidon," Annabeth explained, glad to have something to distract her. "Percy can talk to them and they talk back."

"Wow, that's so cool!" Leo grinned.

**Blackjack the Pegasus was an old friend of mine, so I tried not to get too annoyed by the craters he'd just put in my hood;** **but I didn't think my stepdad Paul would be real stoked.**

**"Blackjack," I sighed. "What are you-?"**

**Then I saw who was riding on his back, and I knew my day was about to get way more complicated.**

**"'Sup Percy."**

They all looked down sadly, knowing who it was.

**Charles Beckendorf,****senior counselor for the Hephaestus cabin would make monsters cry for their mommies. He was huge, with ripped muscles from working on the forges every summer, two years older than me, and one of the camps best armorsmiths. **

"More like_ the_ best armorsmith," Jake mumbled, looking down.

"He sounds awesome," Leo noted with a sigh. Jake nodded.

**He made some seriously ingenious stuff. A month before, he'd rigged a Greek firebomb in the bathroom of a tour bus that was carrying a bunch of monsters across the country. The explosion took out a whole legion of Kronos's evil meanies as soon as the first harpy went**_**flush.**_

A few of them gave weak chuckles.

"He was definitely awesome," Travis grinned.

**Beckendorf was dressed for combat. He wore a bronze breastplate and a war helm with black camo pants and a sword strapped to his side. His explosives bag was slung over his shoulder.**

**"Time?" I asked.**

**He nodded grimly.**

**A clump formed in my throat. I'd known this was coming. We'd been planning for it for weeks, but I'd half hoped it would never happen.**

**Rachel looked up at Beckendorf. "Hi."**

"I love how you're all cool about that," Connor snorted.

Rachel shrugged. "You get used to it."

"**Oh, hey. I'm Beckendorf. You must be Rachel. Percy's told me… uh, I mean he mentioned you."**

**Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Really? Good." She glanced at Blackjack, who was clopping his hooves against the hood of the Prius. "So I guess you guys have to go save the world now."**

"**Pretty much." Beckendorf agreed.**

**I looked at Rachel helplessly. "Would you tell my mom –?"**

"**I'll tell her. I'm sure she's used to it.**** And I'll explain to Paul about the hood."**

**I nodded my thanks. I figured this might be the last time Paul loaned me his car.**

"You think so?" Leo muttered sarcastically, trying to lift the mood a little. Which didn't really have that effect, since he wasn't exactly cheerful himself.

"**Good luck." Rachel kissed me before I could even react.**

Rachel flinched at the sudden glare Annabeth gave her (she couldn't help it if she got subconsciously defensive).

Though before she could say anything, the Stoll brothers (who seemed to have a death wish) wolf-whistled. "Ohemgee you kissed him!" Connor said in a falsetto, acting all shocked and horror-struck. He regretted it a second later when Annabeth punched his arm.

"Shut _up_," she hissed, then shot Jason a sharp look to continue. He gladly obliged, making a mental note not to ever get on her bad side.

"Sorry about that," Rachel murmured to her friend.

**"Now get going half-blood. Go kill some monsters for me."**

**My last view of her was sitting in the shotgun seat of the Prius, arms crossed, watching as Blackjack circled higher and higher, carrying Beckendorf and me into the sky. I wondered what she wanted to talk to me about, and whether or not I would live long enough to find out.**

"**So," Beckendorf said, "I'm guessing you don't want me to mention that little scene to Annabeth?"**

"**Oh gods," I muttered. "Don't even think about it."**

The others heard Annabeth mumble distinctly under her breath about "stupid Seaweed Brain…"

**Beckendorf chuckled, and together we soared over the Atlantic.**

**It was almost dark by the time we spotted our target. The**_**Princess Andromeda**___**glowed on the horizon – a huge cruise ship light up yellow and white. From a distance, you'd think it was just a party ship, not the headquarters for the Titan lord. Then as you got closer, you might notice the giant figurehead – a dark-haired maiden in a Greek chiton, wrapped in chains with a look of horror on her face, as if she could smell the stench of all the monsters she was being forced to carry.**

**Seeing the ship again twisted my gut into knots. I'd almost died twice on the**_**Princess Andromeda**_**. **

"Must be nice to see it again," Travis commented.

"Funny, I was thinking the exact opposite," Connor said to him innocently.

**Now it was heading straight for New York.**

"**You know what to do?" Beckendorf yelled over the wind.**

**I nodded. We'd done dry runs at the dockyards in New Jersey, using abandoned ships as our targets.**

**I knew how little time we would have. But I also knew this was our best chance to end Kronos's invasion before it ever started.**

"**Blackjack," I said, "set us down on the lowest stern point.**

_**Gotcha, boss,**_**he said.**_**Man, I hate seeing that boat.**_

**Three years ago, Blackjack had been enslaved on the**_**Princess Andromeda**_**until he'd escaped with a little help from my friends and me. I figured he'd rather have his man braided like My Little Pony then be back there again.**

A few of them snickered at the mental image, especially the ones who knew Blackjack.

"**Don't wait for us," I told him.**

_**But boss –**_

"**Trust me," I said. "We'll get out by ourselves."**

**Blackjack folded his wings and plummeted toward the boat like a black comet. The wind whistled in my ears. I saw monsters patrolling the upper decks on the ship –**_**dracaena,**___**snake- women, hellhounds, giants and the humanoid sea-demons known as telkhines – but we zipped by so fast, none of them raised the alarm. We shot down the stern of the boat; Blackjack folded his wings, lightly coming to a landing on the lowest deck. I climbed off, feeling queasy.**

_**Good luck, boss,**_**Blackjack said.**_**Don't let 'em turn you into horse meat!**_

This time they did laugh.

"Man, I already love this pegasus," Leo grinned.

**With that, my old friend flew off into the night. I took my pen out of my pocket and uncapped it; **

"A… pen?" Leo said unsurely, eyebrows rising.

"It must be a weapon," mused Jason. "Like my coin."

"Oh."

**Riptide sprang to full size – three feet of deadly Celestial bronze glowing in the dusk.**

"Awesome!"

**Beckendorf pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. I thought it was a map or something. Then I realized it was a photograph. He stared at it in the dim light – the smiling face of Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite.**

The older campers looked down again, grimaces covering their faces. Piper tensed slightly. She wanted to know about her half-sister so much… she hoped this book would have the answers.

**They'd started going out last summer, after years of the rest of us saying "Duh, you guys like each other!" Even with all the dangerous missions Beckendorf had been happier this summer then I had ever seen him.**

"At least there's that," murmured Annabeth. "He enjoyed his time here, before… everything happened." The others nodded.

"**We'll make it back at camp." I promised.**

They flinched slightly. They'd all experienced promises in battles and dangerous times that couldn't be carried out…Promises that left a lot of people guilty…

**For a second I say worry in his eyes. Then he put on his old confident smile.**

"**You bet," He said. "Let's blow Kronos back into a million pieces."**

**Beckendorf led the way. We followed a narrow corridor to the service stairwell, just like we practiced, but we froze when we heard noises above us.**

"**I don't care what your nose says!" snarled a half-human, half-dog voice – a telkhine. "The last time you smelled half-blood, it was a meatloaf sandwich!"**

"**Meatloaf sandwiches are good!" a second voice snarled. **

"Typical monsters," Travis said. "They're all idiots."

"Which is actually a good thing, for us," his brother pointed out.

**"But this is half-blood, I swear. They are on board!"**

"**Bah, your**_**brain**_**isn't on board."**

"See what I mean," Connor said smugly.

"Yeah, but thing is, no-one argued with you," Travis told him, rolling his eyes.

Some of the others smiled weakly, though it was short-lived as they knew what was to come.

**They continued to argue and Beckendorf pointed downstairs. We descended as quietly as we could. Two floors down, the voices of the telkhines began to fade.**

**Finally we came to a metal hatch. Beckendorf mouthed the words "engine room".**

**It was locked, but as Beckendorf pulled some chains cutters out of his bag and split the bolt like it was made of butter.**

**Inside, a row of yellow turbines the size of grain silos churned and hummed. Pressure gauges and computer terminals lined the opposite wall. A telkhine was hunched over a console, but he was so involved with his work, he didn't notice us. He was about five feet tall, with slick black seal fur and stubby little feet. He had the head of a Doberman, but his clawed hands were almost human. He growled and muttered as he tapped on his keyboard. Maybe he was messaging his friends on .**

**I stepped forward, and he tensed, probably smelling something was wrong. He leaped sideways towards a big red alarm button, but I blocked his path. He hissed and lunged at me, but one slice of Riptide, and he exploded into dust.**

"**One down," Beckendorf said. "About five thousand to go."**

"Yep, keep up the optimism…"

**He tossed me a jar of thick green liquid – Greek fire, one of the most dangerous magical substances in the world. Then he threw me another essential tool to demigod heroes – duct tape.**

"Yeah, it's right up there with the magical weapons and stuff," Leo said at an attempt at a joke.

"**Slap that one of the console," he said. "I'll get the turbines."**

**We went to work, the room was hot and humid, and in no time we were drenched in sweat.**

**The boat kept chugging along. Being the son of Poseidon and all, I have a perfect bearing at sea. Don't ask me how, but I could tell we were at 40.19 degrees north, 71.90 degrees west, making eighteen knots, which would arrive in New York Harbor by dawn. **

"It's good that they know things like that," Piper commented.

**This would be our only chance to stop it.**

**I had just attached a second jar of Greek fire to the control panels when I heard pounding feet on metal steps – so many creatures coming down the stairwell I could hear them over the engines. Not a good sign. I locked eyes with Beckendorf, "How much longer?"**

"**Too long." He tapped his watch, which was our remote control detonator. "I still have to wire the receiver and prime the charges. Ten more minutes at least."**

**Judging from the sounds of footsteps, we had about ten seconds.**

Everyone tensed.

"**I'll distract them." I said. "Meet you at the rendezvous point."**

"**Percy –"**

"**Wish me luck."**

**He looked like he wanted to argue.**

**The whole idea had been to get in and get out without being spotted. But we had to improvise.**

"**Good luck." He said.**

**I charged out the door.**

**A half dozen telkhines were tromping down the stairs. T cut through them with Riptide faster than they could yelp. I kept climbing – past another telkhine, who was so startled he dropped his Lil' Demons lunch box. I kept him alive – partly because his lunch box was cool,**

"Seaweed Brain," muttered Annabeth with a half-smile.

**partly so he could raise the alarm and hopefully get his friends to follow me rather than head towards the engine room.**

**I burst through a door onto deck six and kept running. I'm sure the carpeted hall was once been very plush, but over the last three years of monster occupation the wallpaper, carpet, and stateroom doors had been clawed up and slimed so it looked like the inside of a dragon's throat (and yes, unfortunately, I speak from experience.)**

The trio looked at Annabeth at that, eyebrows raised.

"Do we want to know what happened there?" Jason asked unsurely.

Annabeth grimaced at the memory of that quest. "I'm not actually sure of all the details… you'll have to ask Thalia, she was there."

Jason nodded and read on, knowing they weren't going to get anything else from her.

**Back on my first visit to the**_**Princess Andromeda,**___**my old enemy Luke****had kept some dazed tourists on board for show, shrouded in Mist so they didn't realize they were on a monster-infested ship. I hated to think of what had happened to them, but I kind of doubted they'd be allowed to go home with their bingo winnings.**

"I really doubt that," Rachel grimaced, trying not to think of what might have happened to those poor mortals.

**I reached the promenade, a big shopping mall that took up the whole middle of the ship, and I stopped cold. In the middle of the courtyard stood a fountain. And in the fountain squatted a giant crab.**

"Giant, as in, king-crab-size, or giant as in bigger-than-me-size?" asked Travis.

Jason grinned as he read the next part.

**I'm not talking "giant" like $7.99 all-you-can-eat-Alaskan king crab. I'm talking**_**giant**___**like bigger than the fountain.**

"Creepy…" Travis muttered, widening his eyes.

"Dude, Percy can hear you!" Connor exclaimed.

**The monster rose ten feet out of the water. Its shell was mottled blue and green, and its pincers larger than my body.**

**If you've ever seen a crab's mouth, all foamy and gross with whiskers and snapping bits, you can imagine this one didn't look any better blown up to billboard size. Its beady black eyes glared at me, and I could see intelligence in them – and hate. The fact that I was the son of the sea god was not going to win me any points with Mr. Crabby.**

"Wow," Leo said. "How the hell does he get out of that?"

"No idea."

"**FFFfffff," it hissed, sea foam dripping from its mouth. The smell coming off him was like garbage can full of fish sticks that had been sitting in the sun all week.**

"Sounds pleasant," Connor mumbled, wrinkling his nose.

Annabeth shot him a brief evil grin. "Really? Then I know what to get you for your birthday."

"I was kidding!"

**Alarms blared. Soon I was going to have lots of company and I had to keep moving.**

"**Hey, crabby." I inched around the edge of the courtyard. "I'm just gonna scoot around you so–"**

Snorts.

"Right. That'll work."

**The crab moved with amazing speed. It scuttled out of the fountain and came straight at me, pincers snapping. I dove into a gift shop, plowing through a rack of t-shirts. A crab pincer smashed the glass walls to pieces and raked across the room. I dashed back outside, breathing heavily, but Mr. Crabby turned and followed.**

"**There!" a voice said from a balcony above me. "Intruder!"**

"Oh crap."

**If I'd wanted to create a distraction, I'd succeeded, but this was not where I wanted to fight. If I got pinned down in the center of the ship, I was crab chow.**

**The demonic crustacean lunged at me. I sliced with Riptide, taking off the tip of its claw. It hissed and foamed, but didn't seem very hurt.**

**I tried to remember anything from the old stories that might help with this thing. Annabeth had told me about a monster crab – something about Hercules crushing it under his foot? **

"Well, unless he magically gets some shoe-enhancing thing, that's not an option," Piper deliberated.

**That wasn't going to work here. This crab was slightly bigger than my Reeboks.**

"Only slightly."

**To our cabin at Montauk, where we'd been going forever. Paul had taken me crabbing, and when he'd brought up a net full of things he'd shown me how crabs have a chink in their armor, right in the middle of their ugly bellies.**

"Score one for Percy," Travis grinned.

**The only problem was getting to the ugly belly.**

"Minus that score if he doesn't know how to do it," he muttered.

**I glanced at the fountain, then at the marble floor, already slick from scuttling crab tracks.**

**I held out my hand, concentrating on the water, and the fountain exploded. Water sprayed everywhere, three stories high, dousing the balconies and the elevators and the windows of the shops. The crab didn't care. It loved water. It came at me sideways, snapping and hissing, and I ran straight at it, screaming. "AHHHHHHH!"**

**Just before we collided, I hit the ground baseball-style and slide on the wet marble floor straight under the creature. It was like sliding under a seven ton vehicle. All the crab had to do was sit and squash me,**

"That would've been a nice end to the story," remarked Jake dryly.

**but before it realized what was going on, I jabbed Riptide into the chink in its armor, let go of the hilt, and pushed myself out backside.**

"Nice one!" A lot of them noted appraisingly.

**The monster shuddered and hissed. Its eyes dissolved. Its shell turned bright red and its insides evaporated. The empty shell clattered to the floor in a massive heap.**

**I didn't have time to admire my handiwork. I ran for the nearest stairs while all around me monsters and demigods shouted orders and strapped on their weapons. I was empty-handed. Riptide, being magical, would appear in my pocket sooner or later, **

"Now that," Leo said in awe. "Is useful. Your weapon can't do that man!" He added, turning to Jason.

Jason said mock-indignantly, "My weapon's cool enough, thanks!"

**but for now it was stuck somewhere under the wreckage of the crab, and I had no time to retrieve it.**

**In the elevator foyer of deck eight, a couple of**_**dracaena**___**slithered across my path. From the waist up, they were woman with green scaly skin, yellow eyes, and forked tongues. From the waist down, they had double snake trunks instead of legs. **

"They sound nasty," Piper said, making a face.

"They are really nasty," nodded Annabeth. "But not that hard to fight. Sometimes."

**They held spears and weighted nets, and I knew from experience they could use them.**

"**What isss thisss?" one said. "A prize for Kronosss?"**

**I wasn't in the mood to play break-the-snakes, but in front of me was a stand with a model of the ship, like a "you are here display." I ripped the model off the pedestal and hurled it at the first**_**dracaena.**___**The boat smacked her in the face and she went down with the ship. I jumped over her, grabbed her friend's spear, and swung it around. She slammed into the elevator, and I kept running toward the front of the ship.**

"**Get him!" she screamed.**

**Hellhounds bayed. An arrow somewhere whizzed past my face and impaled itself in the mahogany-paneled wall of the stairwell.**

"Ooh, close."

**I didn't care – as long as I got the monsters away from the engine room and gave Beckendorf more time.**

**As I was running up the stairwell, a kid charged down. He looked like he'd just woken up from a nap. His armor was half on. He drew his sword and yelled, "Kronos!" but he sounded more scared than angry. He couldn't have been more than twelve – about the same age I was when I'd first arrived at Camp Half-Blood.**

"That's just sad," frowned Jason. "Twelve year olds being convinced to join Kronos…"

"It was, but there wasn't really anything we could do about it," sighed Annabeth. A lot of demigods died in the war, good and bad.

**That thought depressed me. This kid was getting brainwashed – trained to hate the gods and lash out because he'd been born half Olympian. Kronos was using him, and yet the kid thought I was his enemy.**

Piper shuddered at the thought. It was… wretched. Sick.

**No way was I going to hurt him. I didn't need a weapon for this. I stepped inside his strike and grabbed his wrist, slamming it against the wall. His sword clattered out of his hand.**

**Then I did something I hadn't planned on. It was probably stupid. It definitely jeopardized our mission, but I couldn't help it. **

"Of course, Percy has to do something stupid," Travis said.

"I seriously wouldn't be talking, Travis," Annabeth glared at him.

**"If you want to live," I told him, "get off this ship**_**now.**___**Tell the other demigods." Then I shoved him down the stairs and sent him tumbling to the next floor.**

**I kept climbing.**

**Bad memories: a hallway ran past the cafeteria. Annabeth, my half brother Tyson, and I had sneaked through here three years ago on my first visit.**

**I burst outside the main deck. Off the port bow, the sky was darkening from purple to black. A swimming pool glowed between two glass towers with more balconies and restaurant decks. The whole upper ship seemed eerily deserted.**

**All I had to do was cross the other side. Then I could take the staircase down to the helipad – our emergency rendezvous point. With any luck, Beckendorf would meet me there. We'd jump into the sea. My water powers would protect us both, and we'd detonate the charges a quarter of a mile away.**

"If only…" muttered Jake under his breath.

**I was halfway across the deck when the sound of a voice made me freeze. "You're late, Percy."**

**Luke stood on the balcony above me, a smile on his scarred face. He wore jeans, a white T-shirt, and flip-flops, like he was just a normal college-age guy, but his eyes told the truth. They were solid gold.**

Everyone shuddered – mostly the older campers. They couldn't help but feel a bit bad about Luke (the ones who knew him well, anyway) and what happened, though it was his decision to start off with.

"Are they gold because he's…" Jason trailed off, looking ill at the thought.

Annabeth nodded glumly. "Yes. Kronos."

"**We've been expecting you for days." At first he sounded normal, like Luke. But then his face twitched. A shudder passed through his body as though he'd just drunk something really nasty. His voice became heavier, ancient, and powerful – the voice of the Titan lord Kronos. The words scrapped down my spine like a knife blade. "Come, bow before me."**

"Creep…"

"These bad guys need new phrases," mumbled Connor.

"Seriously," Leo agreed. "'Bow to me's a bit old."

"Cliché."

Jason caught Annabeth's eye and she sent him a 'continue reading so we can get this over with' look.

"**Yeah, that'll happen," I muttered.**

**Laistrygonian giants filed in on either side of the swimming pool as if they'd been waiting for the cue. Each was eight feet tall with tattooed arms, leather armor, and spiked clubs. Demigod archers appeared on the roof above Luke. Two hellhounds leaped down from the opposite balcony and snarled at me. Within seconds I was surrounded. A trap: there's no way they could've gotten into position so fast unless they'd known I was coming.**

"Great."

**I looked up at Luke, and anger boiled inside me. I didn't know if Luke's consciousness was even alive inside that body. Maybe, the way his voice had changed… or maybe it was just Kronos adapting to his new form. I told myself it didn't matter. Luke had been twisted and evil long before Kronos possessed him.**

Annabeth had to work to keep her expression neutral, but it was hard as all those previous thoughts and doubts and feelings came back, now with some regret too, as she remembered Luke's last moments.

Jason continued reading so she forced herself to focus on the story.

**A new voice in my head said:**_**I have to fight him eventually. Why not now?**_

"Seriously?" About half of them said.

"I never knew he tried to take him on so soon," Rachel exclaimed.

"It's a good thing he didn't have a full-on battle then," Annabeth frowned, going cold at the thought of Percy fighting Kronos properly before he'd become immortal.

**According to that big prophecy, I was supposed to make a choice that saved or destroyed the world when I was sixteen. That was only seven days away. **

"Oh yeah. Wow, poor guy," Leo said, shaking his head. That had to be tough.

"It's weird hearing that now," Rachel muttered to Annabeth. "Now that we know who the prophecy was actually referring to, I mean."

Annabeth nodded, still frowning.

**Why not now? If I really had the power, what difference would a week make? I could end this threat right here by taking down Kronos. Hey, I'd fought monsters and gods before.**

"Ego, much?" Connor grinned briefly.

"It's Percy, what d'you expect," Travis commented lightly.

**As if reading my thoughts, Luke smiled. No, he was**_**Kronos.**_**I had to remember that.**

"**Come forward," he said. "If you dare."**

**The crowd of monsters parted. I moved up the stairs, my heart pounding. I was sure somebody would stab me in the back, but they let me pass. I felt my pocket and found my pen waiting. I uncapped it, and Riptide grew into a sword.**

**Kronos's weapon appeared in his hands – a six-foot-long scythe, half Celestial bronze, half mortal steal. Just looking at the thing made my knees turn to Jell-O. But before I could change my mind, I charged.**

**Time slowed down. I mean**_**literally**___**slowed down, because Kronos had that power.**

"That seriously sucks," Jake scowled.

"And it's unfair," Piper pointed out, frowning.

**I felt like I was moving through syrup. My arms were so heavy; I could barely raise my sword. Kronos smiled, swirling his scythe at normal speed and waiting for me to creep toward my death.**

**I tried to fight his magic. I concentrated on the sea around me – the source of my power. I'd gotten better at channeling it over the years, but now nothing seemed to happen.**

**I took another slow step forward. Giants jeered.**_**Dracaena**___**hissed with laughter.**

_**Hey, ocean,**___**I pleaded.**_**Any day now would be good.**_

"Only Percy could get away with speaking to the ocean and not being claimed insane," Annabeth said fondly, shaking her head.

**Suddenly there was a wrenching pain in my gut. The entire boat lurched sideways, throwing monsters off their feet. Four thousand gallons of salt water surged out of the swimming pool, dousing me and Kronos and everyone on the dock. The water revitalized me, breaking the time spell, and I lunged forward.**

"Whoa, wait, he actually broke Kronos's spell?" Jake said, looking shocked.

"_Damn_. He really is good," Connor gaped.

"Did you seriously doubt that, though?" Rachel asked him.

"…Nah."

**I struck at Kronos, but I was still too slow. I made the mistake at looking at his face -**_**Luke's face –**___**a guy who was once my friend. As much as I hated him, it was hard to kill him.**

**Kronos had no such hesitation. He sliced downward with his scythe. I leaped back and the evil blade missed by an inch, cutting in the deck right between my feet.**

**I kicked Kronos in the chest. He stumbled backward, but he was heavier than Luke should've been. It was like kicking a refrigerator.**

"Yeah man, lose some weight already!" Connor snickered.

**Kronos swung his scythe again. I intercepted with Riptide, but his strike was so powerful, my blade could only reflect it. The edge of the scythe shaved off my shirtsleeve and grazed my arm. It shouldn't have been a serious cut, but the entire side of my body exploded with pain. I remembered what a sea demon had once said about Kronos's scythe:**_**Careful, fool. One touch and that blade will sever your soul from your body.**_**Now I understood what he meant.**

Everyone winced.

"Ouch."

"How did he get out of that?" Jason asked, disconcerted.

"Water heals him," Annabeth said shortly.

**I wasn't just losing blood; I could feel my strength, my will, my identity draining away.**

"Gods, that is terrifying."

**I stumbled backward, switched my sword to my left hand, and lunged desperately. My blade should've run him through, but it deflected off his stomach like I was hitting solid marble. There was no way he should've survived that.**

"What? How?" Piper queried.

"I can't say," Annabeth said. "You'll have to read on."

"Can't we just get the answer?" Leo pleaded, eyes widening.

"Nope."

"Damn."

**Kronos laughed. "A poor performance, Percy Jackson. Luke tells me you were never his match at swordplay."**

**My vision started to blur. I knew it didn't have much time. "Luke had a big head," I said. "But at least it was**_**his**___**head."**

"True," a few murmured in agreement.

"**A shame to kill you now," Kronos mused, "before the final plan unfolds. I would love to see the terror in your eyes when you realize how I will destroy Olympus."**

"**You'll never get this boat to Manhattan." My arm was throbbing. Black spots danced in my vision.**

"**And why would that be?" Kronos's golden eyes glittered. His face – Luke's face – seemed like a mask, unnatural and lit from behind by some evil power. "Perhaps you are counting on your friend with the explosives?"**

They winced, bracing themselves.

**He looked down at the pool and called, "Nakamura!"**

**A teenage guy in full Greek armor pushed through the crows. His left eye was covered with a black patch. I knew him, of course: Ethan Nakamura, the son of Nemesis. I'd saved his life in the Labyrinth last summer, and in return, the little punk had helped Kronos come back to life.**

"Idiot," Annabeth and Rachel both muttered, having both been there.

"**Success, my lord," Ethan called. "We found him just as we were told."**

**He clapped his hands, and two giants lumbered forward, dragging Charles Beckendorf between the, my heart almost stopped. Beckendorf had a swollen eye and cuts all over his face and arms. His armor was gone and his shirt was nearly torn off.**

Jake couldn't hold back a shudder. Beckendorf was always the toughest one. They hardly ever saw him beaten or down… hearing this was tough. Leo (who was sitting next to him) placed a hand on his shoulder silently.

"**No!" I yelled.**

**Beckendorf met my eyes. He glanced at his hand like he was trying to tell me something.**_**His watch.**_**They hadn't taken it yet, and that was the detonator. Was it possible the explosives where still armed? Surely the monsters would've dismantled them right away.**

"**We found him amidships," one of the giants said, "trying to sneak to the engine room. Can we eat him now?"**

"**Soon." Kronos scowled at Ethan. "Are you sure he didn't set the explosives?"**

"**He was going**_**toward**_**the engine room, my lord."**

"He tricked them," Leo mumbled, feeling some awe that he could think of something that quick under the danger.

"**How do you know that?"**

"**Err…" Ethan shifted uncomfortably. "He was heading in that direction. And he told us. His bag is still full of explosives."**

**Slowly, I began to understand. Beckendorf had fooled them. When he'd realized he was going to be captured, he turned to make it look like he was going the other way. He'd convinced them he hadn't made it to the engine room yet. The Greek fire might still be primed! But that didn't do us any good unless we could get off the ship and detonate it.**

"Couldn't they have set it off then fought their way off the ship?" Piper asked, biting her lip.

IT was Leo who shook his head. "Doubt it. In this situation, the best thing to do would be to prime the detonator to a minimum – probably a second, or immediate set-off. Am I right?" he asked Jake, who nodded numbly.

**Kronos hesitated.**

_**Buy the story,**___**I prayed. The pain in my arm was so bad now I could barely stand.**

"**Open his bag," Kronos ordered.**

"Crap."

**One of the giants ripped the explosives satchel from Beckendorf's shoulders. He peered inside, grunted, and turned it upside down. Panicked monsters surged backward. If the bag really had been full of Greek fire jars, we would've all blown up. But what fell out were a dozen cans of peaches.**

**I could hear Kronos breathing, trying to control his anger.**

"**Did you, perhaps," he said. "Capture this demigod near the galley?"**

**Ethan turned pale. "Um –"**

"**And did you, perhaps, send someone to actually CHECK THE ENGINE ROOM?"**

"They're all idiots," Travis said quietly, rolling his eyes.

**Ethan scrambled back in terror then turned on his heels and ran.**

**I cursed silently. Now we had only minutes before the bombs were disarmed. I caught Beckendorf's eyes again and asked a silent question, hoping he would understand:**_**How long?**_

**He cupped his fingers and thumb, making a circle.**_**Zero.**_

**There was no delay on the timer at all. If he managed to press the detonator button, the ship would blow at once. We'd never be able to get far enough away before using it. The monsters would kill us first, or disarm the explosives, or both.**

**Kronos turned towards me with a crooked smile. "You'll have to excuse my incompetent help, Percy Jackson. But it doesn't matter. We have you now. We've known you were coming for weeks."**

"No need to gloat about it," Connor muttered.

**He held out his hand and dangled a little sliver bracelet with a scythe charm – the Titan lord's symbol.**

**The wound in my arm was sapping my ability to think.**

**I muttered, "Communication device... spy at camp."**

A sigh went through the group.

**Kronos chuckled. "You can't count on your friends. They will always let you down. Luke learned that lesson the hard way. **

Annabeth scowled at those words – those false words. They hadn't let him down, it had been the complete opposite.

**Now drop your sword and surrender to me, or your friend dies."**

**I swallowed. One of the giants had his hand around Beckendorf's neck. I was in no shape to rescue him, and even if I tried, he would die before I got there. We both would.**

**Beckendorf mouthed one word:**_**Go.**_

Jake shook his head, closing his eyes. If only they hadn't been caught like that…

**I shook my head. I couldn't just leave him.**

**The second giant was still rummaging through the peach cans, which meant Beckendorf's left arm was free. He raised it slowly – toward the watch on his wrist.**

**I wanted to scream,**_**NO!**_

Everyone caught their breath. The clearing was eerily quiet, with only Jason's voice sounding as he read.

**Then down at the swimming pool, one of the**___**dracaena**_**hissed, "What isss he doing? What isss that on hisss wrissst?"**

**Beckendorf closed eyes tight and brought down his hand up to his watch.**

Leo swore softly, gripping Jake's shoulder hard. He couldn't think of the courage it would take to do that… or what it would feel like to watch…

Jake had his head in his hands, trying not to imagine that… The others shut their eyes too, or looked down sadly, trying not to think about it too much.

**I had no choice. I threw my sword like a javelin at Kronos. It bounced harmlessly off his chest, but it did startle him. I pushed through the crowed of monsters and jumped off the side of the ship – toward the water a hundred feet below.**

**I heard rumbling deep in the ship. Monsters yelled at me from above. A spear sailed past my ear. An arrow pierce my thigh, but I barely had time to register the pain. I plunged into the sea and willed the currents to take me far, far away – a hundred yards, two hundred yards.**

**Even from a distance, the explosion shook the world. Heat seared the back of my head. The**_**Princess Andromeda**___**blew up from both sides, massive fireball of green flame roiling into the dark sky, consuming everything.**

**Beckendorf, I thought.**

**Then I blacked out and sank like an anchor toward the bottom of the sea.**

"That's the end of the chapter," Jason said quietly, letting out a breath.

They all sat there silently for a minute.

"That was…" Leo started, voice tight, but realised he couldn't get any words to describe it.

"Yeah," muttered Jake, unclenching his fists and taking a breath. "He was… an awesome fighter. A real hero."

"It was definitely a loss to our side," Annabeth said softly.

"Should we continue now, or later?" Piper asked quietly after a moment, sending the Hephaestus boys a concerned glance.

"Just continue," Jake said, and Leo nodded once.

"This is depressing stuff. I need a laugh." He claimed, trying to sound normal-ish.

Piper sent him a smile, then took the book from Jason. "I guess I'll read."

xXx

_So? Apollo is very awesome, don't you think? :P I don't know whether I'll update the next chapter of this story first, or the first chapter of TLH. Depends what I finish first. (And, to be honest, chapter two of TLO isn't one of my favourites – it's getting on hard to write, but I'll do my best)._

_Also, if you know anyone who beta's these types of stories (you know – the whole 'characters reading the series' stories) I'd be really grateful if you could refer them to me. :) I've searched a few times, but I'm not sure whether the ones I've seen would beta something like this, and I don't usually get on the computer long enough to 'research' this too far. :P _

_Um, yeah, think that's it. *off to work on next chapters* Haha, well, I hope you enjoyed this, and criticism is always welcome! :D _

_Cheers!_

_~izzy x_


	2. 2 I Meet Some Fishy Relatives

Chapter Two: I Meet Some Fishy Relatives.

_A/N: Here's the second chapter. :) Sorry for the wait, it was giving me a hard time and I didn't get online for a while. _

_So… Read on, and I hope you're not too disappointed! :D_

Piper started, "**Chapter two: I meet some fishy relatives.**

**Demigod dreams suck.**

Most of the demigods nodded.

"Not _all _our dreams suck though," Travis shrugged.

"I think Percy's dreams were more visions because he was more powerful than others," Annabeth mused.

Connor turned to his brother with a cheeky grin. "Say Travis, mind telling us a few of your dreams that didn't suck?" Travis narrowed his eyes at him, but they all saw the red spreading across his cheeks.

"No thanks bro, I'll keep those to myself," he retaliated in a casual enough voice.

Connor snickered and mumbled under his breath, "Probably dreaming about Ka-"

"I thought I told you to shut up!"

"Nah, you didn't."

"Alright then, shut up."

"I don't-"

"_Both_ of you, _shut up_," Annabeth scowled, sending them death glares which did the job. Of course, everyone else was bursting with laughter, but Piper managed to stop so she could read.

**The thing is they're never just**_**dreams.**_**They've got to be visions, omens, and all that other mystical stuff that makes my brain hurt.**

"I think a lot of things would make his brain hurt," Rachel said seriously.

Annabeth had a smile playing around her lips. "There's a reason I call him Seaweed Brain."

**I dreamed I was in a dark palace at the top of a mountain. Unfortunately, I recognized it: the palace of the Titans on top of Mount Othrys, otherwise known as Mount Tamalpais, in California.**

**The main pavilion was open to the night, ringed with black Greek columns and statues of the Titans. Torchlight glowed against the black marble floor. In the center of the room, an armored giant struggled under the weight of a swirling funnel cloud – Atlas, holding up the sky.**

"Wait, wait," said Leo, frowning. "Did you say – _holding up the sky_?"

Piper nodded, then looked up at Annabeth for answers. She grimaced at the memory.

"That's a long story. But it's not, like, the actual _sky_-"

"Like, it's not the actual _sun_ sun that Apollo pulls?" Leo added helpfully.

She nodded. "Sure, sort of like that. It's Atlas's punishment. I'll tell you the full story later, if you're interested."

**Two other giant men stood nearby over a bronze brazier, studying images in the flames.**

**"Quite an explosion," one said. He wore black armor studded with sliver dots like a starry night. His face was covered in a war helm with a ram's horn curling on either side.**

"Krios."

"What's with the Titans having names staring with K, anyway? Or ending in S?" Connor remarked.

There was a silence as they thought this over… _K_rono_s_, _K_rio_s_… Atla_s_…

Piper decided to start reading again.

**"It doesn't matter," the other said. This Titan was dressed in gold robes, with golden eyes like Kronos. His entire body glowed. He reminded me of Apollo, God of the Sun, except the Titan's light was harsher, and his expression crueler.**

"I'm sure Apollo won't like to hear that," Annabeth muttered.

Rachel agreed. "Though it might deflate his ego a little."

"**The gods have answered the challenge. Soon they will be destroyed."**

**The images in the fire were hard to make out: storms, buildings crumbling, mortals screaming in terror.**

**"I will go east to marshal our forces," the golden Titan said. "Krios, you shall remain and guard Mount Othrys."**

**The ram horn dude grunted.**(Annabeth snorted, "The ram horn dude? Honestly seaweed brain.")

**"I always get the stupid jobs. Lord of the South. Lord of Constellations. Now I get to babysit Atlas while**_**you**___**have all the fun."**

"Someone's PMSing," said Travis, eyebrows raised amusedly.

A moment's silence as everyone else stared at him.

"What?"

"Travis, that's just… no. Just, no." Annabeth shook her head, looking disturbed.

"Right…" Piper mumbled slowly, continuing for the sake of their sanity.

**Under the whirlwind of Clouds, Atlas bellowed in agony. "Let me out, curse you! I am your greatest warrior. Take my burden so I may fight!"**

"Shut up, you whining idiot," Jake said, rolling his eyes.

**"Quiet!" the golden Titan roared. "You had your chance, Atlas. You failed. Kronos likes you just where you are. As for you, Krios, do your duty."**

"This Titan needs to loosen up," commented Leo, wrinkling his nose.

"Seriously," Connor nodded. "He needs to get that stick out of-"

Piper cut him off,

**"And if you need more warriors?" Krios asked. "Our treacherous nephew in the tuxedo will not do you much good in a fight."**

"Well, that much is true," Annabeth said drily.

**The golden Titan laughed. "Don't worry about him. Besides, the gods can barely handle our first little challenge.** **They have no idea how many others we have in store. Mark my words, in a few days' time, Olympus will be in ruins, and we will meet here again to celebrate the down of the Sixth Age!"**

"Sounds promising," Piper stated sarcastically.

"Sounds cliché," Leo added disappointedly. "Someone should make a handbook for the bad guys: 'How to Rule the World while Avoiding Horrible Clichés'."

"Yeah, I'm sure that'll be a bestseller," Jake grinned. "I can just see Kronos sitting in Tartarus reading it."

This, of course, had everyone laughing at the mental image.

**The golden Titan erupted into flames and disappeared.**

**"Oh sure," Krios grumbled. "He gets to erupt into flames. I get to wear these stupid ram's horns."**

"You know," Jason said between laughs. "This Titan's pretty funny."

"Yeah, too bad he's not on our side," Leo agreed with a chuckle. Stupid ram's horns indeed…

**The scene shifted. Now I was outside the pavilion, hiding in the shadows of a Greek column. A boy stood next to me, eavesdropping on the Titans.**

**He had dark silky hair, pale skin, and dark clothes – my friend Nico di Angelo, the son of Hades.**

"Wow. He sounds really… dark."

The girls rolled their eyes at Leo's obvious statement.

"No duh, genius," Piper told him. "He's a son of _Hades_, who's Lord of the _Dead_. What did you think, he'd be wearing neon coloured clothes?"

"No, that would be freaky."

**He looked straight at me, his expression grim.**

"Wait, isn't this a dream-vision thing?" Travis interrupted, confused. "So can Nico see Percy?"

Annabeth looked thoughtful. "Yes, I'd say he can. There is a way to show people things through dreams, and Nico, being skilled at things like that, would have been able to do so."

Piper confirmed this by reading the next lines.

**"You see, Percy?" he whispered. "You're running out of time. Do you really think you can beat them without my plan?"**

**His words washed over me as cold as the ocean floor and my dreams went black.**

"Dramatic much?"

"**Percy?" a deep voice said.**

**My head felt like it had been microwaved in aluminum foil.**

Everyone chuckled.

"He has an interesting way with words," Jason grinned.

**I opened my eyes and saw a large shadowy figure looming over me.**

"**Beckendorf?" I asked hopefully.**

"**No, brother."**

**My eyes refocused. I was looking at a Cyclops – a misshapen face, ratty brown hair, one big brown eye full of concern. "Tyson?"**

"His brother's a Cyclops," Leo cut in again, puzzled.

Piper sighed. "Leo, do you know anything about Greek mythology?"

He shrugged. "You've got all the facts. So go on, tell me."

"Poseidon sired the Cyclopes too; they forge weapons. So, yes, Tyson would be Percy's half-brother."

Annabeth nodded in agreement. "Yes, they work at Poseidon's underwater palace."

"Cool."

**My brother broke into a toothy grin. "Yay! Your brain still works!"**

They all laughed.

"I miss Tyson," Rachel smiled.

"Me too," Annabeth nodded, grinning. "He has a way with saying things…"

**I wasn't so sure. My body felt weightless and cold my voice sounded wrong... I could hear Tyson, but it was like I was hearing vibrations inside my skull, not the regular sounds.**

"So, you're underwater, duh," Connor said, rolling his eyes.

**I sat up, and a gossamer sheet floated away. I was on a bed made of silky woven kelp, in a room paneled with abalone shell.**

**Glowing pearls the size of basketballs floated around the ceiling, providing light. I was under water.**

**Now, being the son of Poseidon and all, I was okay with this. I can breathe underwater just fine, and my clothes don't even get wet unless I want them to.**

"That's incredibly useful," Jason mused.

Leo grinned cockily. "I'd take fire resistance over water any day, though."

"Leo, you've already _got_ fire resistance," Piper told him.

**But it was still a bit of a shock when a hammerhead shark drifted through the bedroom window, regarded me, and then swam calmly out the opposite side of the room.**

**"Where – "**

**"Daddy's palace," Tyson said.**

**Under different circumstances, I would've been excited. I'd never visited Poseidon's realm, and I'd been dreaming about it for years.**

**But my head hurt. My shirt was still speckled with burn marks from the explosion. My arm and leg wounds healed – being in the ocean can do that for me, given enough time – but I still felt like I'd been trampled by a Laistrygonian soccer team in cleats.**

"Painful," Jake winced.

**"How long –"**

**"We found you last night," Tyson said. "Sinking through the water."**

**"The**_**Princess Andromeda?"**_

**"Went ka-boom," Tyson confirmed.**

**"Beckendorf was on board. Did you find…"**

**Tyson's face darkened. "No sign of him. I am sorry, brother."**

**I stared out the window into the deep blue water. Beckendorf was supposed to go to college in the fall. He had a girlfriend, lots of friends, his whole life ahead of him. He couldn't be**_**gone.**_

Jake sighed to himself, wishing they'd stop mentioning his brother; he'd gotten over that already – barely – and really didn't want this wound re-opened.

**Maybe he'd made it off the ship like I had. Maybe he'd jumped over the side… and what? He couldn't have survived a hundred-foot fall into the water like I could. He couldn't have put enough distance between himself and the explosion.**

**I knew in my gut he was dead.**

Piper's voice wavered a little and she took a moment to steady herself.

**He'd sacrificed himself to take out the**_**Princess Andromeda**_**, and I had abandoned him.**

**I thought about my dream: the Titans discussing the explosion as if it didn't matter, Nico di Angelo warning me that I would never beat Kronos without following his plan – a dangerous idea I'd been avoiding for more than a year.**

"What plan?" Jason asked curiously.

Annabeth hesitated. "I won't say. You'll just have to keep reading."

**A distant blast shook the room. Green light blazed outside, turning the whole sea as bright as noon.**

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**Tyson looked worried. "Daddy will explain. Come, he is blowing up monsters."**

**The place might have been the most amazing place I'd ever seen if it hadn't been in the process of getting destroyed.**

**We swam to the end of a long hallway and shot upward on a geyser. As we rose over the rooftops, I caught my breath – well, if you catch your breath underwater.**

**The palace was as big as the city on Mount Olympus, with wide courtyards, gardens, and columned pavilions.** **The gardens were sculpted with coral colonies and glowing sea plants. Twenty or thirty buildings were made of abalone, white but gleaming with rainbow colors.**

**Fish and octopi darted in and out of the windows. The paths were lined with glowing pearls like Christmas lights.**

"Wow," just about everyone breathed, imagining that.

**The main courtyard was filled with warriors – mermen with fish tails from the waist down and human bodies from the waist up expect their skin was blue, which I'd never known before. Some were tending the wounded.**

**Some were sharpening spears and swords. One passed us swimming in a hurry. His eyes where bright green, like the stuff they put in glow-sticks, and his teeth were shark teeth. They don't show you stuff like that in**_**The Little Mermaid.**_

Chuckles arose.

"No, I don't think they would," Piper said, amused.

**Outside the main courtyard stood large fortifications – towers, walls, and antisiege weapons – but most of these had been smashed to ruins. Others were blazing with a strange green light that I knew well – Greek fire, which can burn even underwater.**

**Beyond this, the sea floor stretched into gloom. I could see battles raging- flashes of energy, explosions, the glint of armies clashing.**

**A regular human would've found it too dark to see. Heck, a regular human would've been crushed by the pressure and frozen by the cold. Even my heat-sensitive eyes couldn't make out exactly what was going on.**

**At the edge of the palace complex, a temple with a red coral roof exploded, sending fire and debris streaming in slow motion across the farthest gardens.**

**Out of the darkness above, an enormous form appeared – a squid larger than any skyscraper. It was surrounded by a glittering cloud of dust -at least I thought it was dust, until I realized it was a swarm of mermen trying to attack the monster.**

**The squid descended on the palace and swatted its tentacles, smashing a whole column of warriors. Then a brilliant arc of blue light shot from the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings. The light hit the giant squid, and the monster dissolved like food coloring in water.**

"Awesome!"

**"Daddy," Tyson said, pointing to where the light had come from.**

**"**_**He**_**did that?" I suddenly felt more hopeful. My dad had unbelievable powers. He was the god of the sea. He could deal with this attack, right? Maybe he'd let me help.**

Annabeth frowned. She didn't know he'd wanted to help underwater… She was glad he didn't; they needed him in the battle in New York way too much.

**"Have you been in the fight?" I asked Tyson in awe. "Like bashing heads with your awesome Cyclops strength and that stuff?"**

"That's something I wanna see," Leo chuckled.

**Tyson pouted, and immediately I knew I'd asked a bad question. "I have been… fixing weapons," he mumbled. "Come. Let's go find Daddy."**

**I know this might sound weird to people with, like, regular parents, but I'd only seen my dad four or five times in my life, and never for more than a few minutes.**

"That's actually more than a lot of other campers could say," Jake said quietly.

Personally, Leo thought he could go without seeing Hephaestus for a while. I mean, the guy didn't exactly win 'Father of the Year'.

**The Greek gods don't exactly show up for their kids' basketball games. Still, I thought I would recognize Poseidon on sight.**

**I was wrong.**

"Why wouldn't he?" Piper asked, perplexed. She didn't get an answer, so she continued reading.

**The roof of the temple was a big pen deck that had been set up as a command center. A mosaic on the floor showed an exact map of the palace grounds and the surrounding ocean, but the mosaic moved.**

**Colored stone tiles representing different armies and sea monsters shifted around as the forced changed position. Buildings that collapsed in real life also collapsed in the picture. **

"Wow. That is useful," Annabeth murmured thoughtfully.

**Standing around the mosaic, grimly studying the battle, was a strange assortment of warriors, but none of them looked like my dad. I was searching for a big guy with a good tan and a black beard, wearing Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.**

Annabeth shook her head; did he seriously think his father would be dressed like that in a war?

**There was nobody like that. One guy was a merman with two fish tails instead of one. His skin was green, his armor studded with pearls.**

"Pearls. Terrifying," Leo commented, eyebrow raised, causing some of them to snort.

**His black hair was tied in a ponytail, and he looked young – though it's hard to tell with non-humans. They could be a thousand years old or three.**

**Standing next to him was an old man with a bushy white beard and gray hair. His battle armor seemed to weigh him down. He had green eyes and smile wrinkles around his eyes, but he wasn't smiling now. He was studying the map and leaning on a large metal staff. To his right stood a beautiful woman in green armor with flowing black hair and strange little horns like crab claws. And there was a dolphin – a regular dolphin, but it was staring at the map intently.**

"I'm guessing that's not a regular dolphin," Connor said.

**"Delphin," the old man said. "Send Palaemon and his legion of sharks to the western front. We have to neutralize those leviathans."**

"The old man… That's Poseidon?" Jason asked thoughtfully.

Annabeth nodded, having guessed so herself.

"Why is he… old?" Leo asked, puzzled. Piper skimmed ahead.

"It says it here."

**The dolphin smoke in a chattering voice, but I could understand it in my mind:**_**Yes, lord!**_**It sped away.**

"He can speak to all sea creatures, right?" Piper asked. The others nodded.

**I looked in dismay at Tyson, then back at the old man.**

**It didn't seem possible, but… "Dad?" I asked.**

**The old man looked up. I recognized the twinkle in his eyes, but his face... He looked like he aged forty years.**

"**Hello, Percy."**

"**What – what happened to you?"**

Annabeth grimaced. Most gods would get offended or angry at being asked that.

**Tyson nudged me. He was shaking his head so hard I was afraid it would fall off, but Poseidon didn't look offended.**

"**It's alright, Tyson," he said. "Percy, excuse my appearance. This war has been hard on me."**

"**But you're immortal," I said quietly. "You can look… any way you want."**

"**I reflect the state of my realm," he said.**

"Oh, I get it," Leo nodded.

**"And right now that state is quite grim. Percy, I should introduce you – I'm afraid you just missed my lieutenant Delphin, God of the Dolphins. This is my, er, wife, Amphitrite. My dear –"**

"Can you say _awkward_?" Travis snickered.

"Awkward," his brother said smartly.

"Smartarse."

**The lady in the green armor stared at me coldly, then crossed her arms and said, "Excuse me, my lord. I am needed in battle."**

**She swam away.**

**I felt pretty awkward, but I guess I couldn't blame her, I'd never thought about it much, but my dad had an immortal wife. All his romances with mortals, including with my mom…. well, Amphitrite probably didn't like me much.**

"Understatement, I bet."

**Poseidon cleared his throat. "Yes, well… and this is my son Triton. Er, my**_**other**_**son."**

Some of them snickered.

"_Other_ son, yeah?" Connor smirked. "I'd feel _so_ wanted if I was him."

"**Your son and heir,"' the green dude corrected. **

"Ego," Travis coughed.

**His double dish tails swished back and forth. He smiled at me, but there was no friendliness in his eyes. "Hello, Perseus Jackson. Come to help at last?"**

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Oh, and all that 'blowing up ships' thing wasn't helping?"

"This guy seems stuck-up," Piper agreed.

**He acted like I was late or lazy. If you can blush under-water, I probably did.**

**"Tell me what to do," I said.**

**He smiled like that was a cute suggestion – like I was a slightly amusing dog that had barked for him or something. He turned to Poseidon. "I will see to the front line, Father. Don't worry.**_**I**___**will not fail."**

"Bigger ego…"

**He nodded politely to Tyson. How come I didn't get that much respect?**

"Everyone loves Tyson," Rachel chuckled.

**Then he shot off into the water. Poseidon sighed. He raised his staff, and it changed into his regular weapon – a huge three-pointed trident.**

**The tips glowed with blue light, and the water around it boiled with energy.**

**"I'm sorry about that," he told me.**

**A huge sea serpent appeared from above us and spiraled down towards the roof. It was a bright orange with a fanged mouth big enough to swallow a gymnasium.**

**Hardly looking up, Poseidon pointed his trident at the beast and zapped it with blue energy.**_**Ka-boom!**___**The monster burst into a million goldfish, which all swam off in terror.**

"Goldfish?" Leo snorted with laughter. "From serpent to goldfish… I like it!"

"That's awesome!" the Stolls agreed.

**"My family is anxious," Poseidon continued as if nothing had happened. "The battle against Oceanus is going poorly."**

**He pointed to the edge of the mosaic. With the butt of his trident, he tapped the image of a merman larger than the rest, with the horns of a bull.**

**He appeared to be riding a chariot pulled by crawfish, and instead of a sword, he wielded a live serpent.**

"A serpent. Terrifying," Jake said, repeating his brother's words.

**"Oceanus," I said, trying to remember. "The Titan of the sea?"**

"That much is obvious."

**Poseidon nodded. "He was neutral in the first war of gods and Titans. But Kronos has convinced him to fight. This is... Well, not a good sign. Oceanus would not commit unless he was sure he could pick the winning side."**

**"He looks stupid," I said, trying to sound upbeat. "I mean, who fights with a snake?"**

**"Daddy will tie it in knots," Tyson said firmly.**

"Yeah! Go Lord Poseidon!"

**Poseidon smiled, but he looked weary. "I appreciate your faith. We have been at war almost a year now. My powers are taxed. And still he finds new forces to throw at me – sea monsters so ancient I had forgotten about them."**

**I heard an explosion in the distance. About half a mile away, a mountain of coral disintegrated under the weight of two giant creatures. I could dimly make out their shapes.**

**One was a lobster. The other was a giant humanoid like a Cyclops, but he was surrounded by a flurry of limbs. At first, I thought he was wearing a bunch of giant octopi. Then I realized they were his own arms – a hundred flailing, fighting arms.**

**"Briares!" I said.**

"Briares?" Leo and Jason repeated. Piper smiled and read on.

**I was happy to see him, but he looked like he was fighting for his life. He was the last of his kind – a Hundred-Handed one, cousin of the Cyclopes.**

"Whoa. A _hundred arms_?" Leo said in awe.

**We had saved him from Kronos's prison last summer, and I knew he'd come to help Poseidon, but I hadn't heard of him since.**

**"He fights well," Poseidon said. "I wish we had a whole army like him, but he is only one."**

**I watched as Briares bellowed in rage and picked up the lobster, which thrashed and snapped its pincers.**

**He threw it off the coral mountain, and the lobster disappeared into the darkness. Briares swam after it, his hundred arms spinning like the blades of a motorboat.**

"**Percy, we may not have much time," my dad said. "Tell me of your mission. Did you see Kronos?"**

**I told him everything, though my voice choked up when I explained about Beckendorf. I looked down at the courtyards below and saw hundreds of wounded merman lying on makeshift cots.**

**I saw rows of coral mounds that must've been hastily made graves. I realized Beckendorf wasn't the first death. He was only one of hundreds, maybe thousands. I'd never felt so angry and helpless.**

**Poseidon stroked his beard, "Percy, Beckendorf chose a heroic death. You bear no blame for that. Kronos's army will be in disarray. Many were destroyed."**

**"But we didn't kill him, did we?"**

"None of us thought that exploding his ship would kill him," Annabeth said quietly. "Just that it would slow him down."

**As I said it, I knew it was a naïve hope. We might blow up his ships and disintegrate his monsters, but a Titan lord wouldn't be so easy to kill.**

**"No," Poseidon admitted. "But you've bought our side some time."**

**"There were demigods on that ship," I said, thinking of the kid I'd seen in the stairwell. Somehow, I'd allowed myself to concentrate on the monsters and Kronos.**

**I'd convinced myself that destroying their ship was all right because they were evil, they were sailing to attack my city, and besides, they couldn't really be permanently killed. Monsters just vaporized and re-formed eventually. But demigods…**

"That's the path they chose," Travis said darkly, serious for once. "They knew they could get killed, so it's their own fault." _And Luke chose the worst path,_ he added in his head.

There was a silence.

"That's… true," Annabeth finally said, looking at him oddly.

Travis looked up while Connor sniggered. "What?"

"You said something smart, Stoll."

"…Oh Styx. There goes my rep," he groaned in dismay, and they laughed at him.

**Poseidon put his hand on my shoulder. "Percy, there were only a few demigod warriors aboard that ship, and they all chose to battle for Kronos.** **Perhaps some heeded your warning and escaped. If they did not… they chose their path."**

**"They were brainwashed!" I said. "Now they're dead and Kronos is still alive. That's supposed to make me feel better?"**

"It's war," Jake frowned. "They did their fair share of killing."

"But If you think about it," said Rachel reasonably. "Some of them were brainwashed. Maybe they didn't really want to… do those things, but Kronos can manipulate anyone."

"Still-"

"We are not having this argument now," Annabeth glared at them. "That war's over, we can't do anything to change it."

**I glared at the mosaic – little tile explosions destroying tile monsters. It seemed so easy when it was just a picture.**

**Tyson put his arm around me. If anybody else had tried that, I would've pushed them away, but Tyson was too big and stubborn.**

**He hugged me whether I wanted it or not.**

**"Not your fault, brother. Kronos does not explode good. Next time we will use a big stick."**

Everyone snorted.

"True that."

**"Percy," my father said. "Beckendorf's sacrifice wasn't in vain. You have scattered the invasion force. New York will be safe for a time, which frees the other Olympians to deal with the bigger threat."**

**"The bigger threat?" I thought about what the golden Titan had said in my dream:**_**The gods have answered the challenge. Soon they will be destroyed.**_

**A shadow passed over my father's face. "You've had enough sorrow for one day. Ask Chiron when you return to camp."**

"**Return to camp? But you're in trouble here. I want to help!"**

**"You can't, Percy. Your job is elsewhere."**

**I couldn't believe I was hearing this. I looked at Tyson for backup.**

**My brother chewed his lip. "Daddy….. Percy can fight with a sword. He is good."**

"**I know that," Poseidon said gently.**

"**Dad, I can help," I said. "I know I can. You're not going to hold out here much longer."**

"Ooh, harsh," Connor remarked.

**A fireball launched into the sky from behind the enemy lines. I thought Poseidon would deflect it or something, but it landed on the outer corned of the yard and exploded, sending mermen tumbling through the water. Poseidon flinched as if he'd just been stabbed.**

"**Return to camp," he insisted. "And tell Chiron it's time."**

"**For what?"**

"**You must hear the prophecy. The**_**entire**___**prophecy.'**

**I didn't need to ask him what prophecy. I'd been hearing about the "Great Prophecy" for years, but nobody would ever tell me the whole thing.**

"So which one's worse, that prophecy, or our one?" Leo asked darkly.

Rachel and Annabeth exchange looks. "I can't answer that," Rachel shook her head. "They're both… dangerous. But this one seems a lot more threatening, seeing as we can't tell the outcome at all."

They nodded slowly.

**All I knew was that I was supposed to make a decision that would decide the fate of the world – but no pressure.**

"**What if this**_**is**_**the decision?" I said. "Staying here to fight, or leaving? What if I leave and you…"**

**I couldn't say**_**die**_**. Gods weren't supposed to die, but I'd seen it happen.**

"Who-?"

"Pan," Annabeth answered. "I told you about him, remember? In the Labyrinth."

"Oh yeah."

**Even if they didn't die, they could be reduced to nearly nothing, exiled, imprisoned in the depths of Tartarus like Kronos had been.**

**"Percy, you must go." Poseidon insisted. "I don't know what your final decision will be, but your fight lies in the world above.** **If nothing else, you must warn your friends at camp. Kronos knew your plans. You have a spy.** **We will hold here. We have no choice."**

**Tyson gripped my hand desperately. "I will miss you, brother!"**

**Watching us, our father seemed to age another ten years. "Tyson, you have work to do as well, my son. They need you in the armory."**

**Tyson pouted some more.**

**"I will go," he sniffled. He hugged me so hard he almost cracked my ribs. "Percy, be careful! Do not let monsters kill you dead!"**

"So if they kill him alive, that's fine?" Travis said innocently.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, though a smile formed at Tyson's words.

**I tried to nod confidently, but it was too much for the big guy. He sobbed and swam away toward the armory, where his cousins were fixing spears and swords.**

"Aw," Rachel cooed. "Poor Tyson."

**"You should let him fight," I told my father. "He hates being stuck in the armory. Can't you tell?"**

**Poseidon shook his head. "It is bad enough I must send you into danger. Tyson is too young. I must protect him."**

"He really loves them, doesn't he?" Jason noticed, a slight frown on his face. He couldn't help wondering whether Zeus ever loved him, but he shook that thought away.

"**You should trust him," I said. "Not try to protect him."**

**Poseidon's eyes flared. I thought I'd gone too far, but then he looked down at the mosaic and his shoulders sagged. On the tiles, the mermaid guy in the crawfish chariot was coming closer to the palace.**

**"Oceanus approaches," my father said. "I must meet him in battle."**

**I'd never been scared for a god before, but I didn't see how my dad could face this Titan and win.**

**"I will hold," Poseidon promised. "I will not give up my domain. Just tell me, Percy, do you still have the birthday gift I gave you last summer?"**

**I nodded and pulled out my camp necklace. It had a bead for every summer I'd been at Camp Half-Blood, but since last year, I'd also kept a sand dollar on the cord. My father had given it to me for my fifteenth birthday. He'd told me that I would know when to "spend it," but so far, I hadn't figured out what he meant. All I knew was that it didn't fit the vending machines in the school cafeteria.**

"Oh my gods Percy," Annabeth exclaimed, chuckling.

"What would he have done if it got stuck in there?" Rachel said amusedly.

**"The time is coming," he promised. "With luck, I will see you for your birthday next week, and we will have a proper celebration."**

**He smiled, and for a moment, I saw the old light in his eyes.**

**Then the entire sea grew dark in front of us, like an inky storm was rolling in. Thunder crackled, which would've been impossible underwater. A huge icy presence was approaching us. I sensed a wave of fear roll through the armies below us.**

"**I must assume my true godly form," Poseidon said. "Go – and good luck, my son."**

**I wanted to encourage him, to hug him or something. But I knew better than to stick around. When a god assumes his true form, the power is so great that any mortal looking on him will disintegrate.**

**"Good-bye, Father," I managed.**

**Then I turned away. I willed the ocean currents to air me. Water swirled around me, and I shot toward the surface at speeds that would've cause any normal human to pop like a balloon.**

**When I looked back, all I could see were flashes of green and blue as my father fought the Titan, and the sea itself was torn apart by the two armies.**

"That's the end," Piper said, handing the book over to Leo. "Wow. That was an… interesting chapter."

"And now we get to hear the first Great Prophecy. Joyness," Leo muttered, turning the page.

Annabeth looked at her watch. "I think we'll read this chapter, then meet up here tomorrow, same time, to read more? We've all got important things to do."

They agreed to the plan.

_A/N: Yeah. Told you this one's not so good. I couldn't think of any comments for some bits, that's why they're just… blank. Anyway, next chapter's a lot more interesting, so I'll try getting it done quicker than this one. But school starts again tomorrow (kill me :S) and I don't know how much work we'll be getting this term… (And, before you ask, I'm in Australia, that's why our holidays are different to yours.)_

_Okay, so I've gotten a few requests to put in other characters, like Thalia and Nico. I would, but it would be a lot then, and I can't have them all commenting. And I don't want this to be like other stories. BUT: I am getting Thalia in for sure (duh, she's awesome!), starting next chapter. :D I want to put Nico in but I'm not sure about how to write his character, you know? And I don't wanna risk stuffing him up, 'cause that would suck and ruin his awesomeness. 'Sides, as I said, too much people. :S_

_Before I forget, a big THANK YOU to all those who reviewed and favourited this story! :D I love reviews. They're awesome. So keep 'em coming, guys. (Sorry if I don't reply – as I've said, I hardly get on the computer, and when I do, I'm working on stories. But I do read them! I'll reply if you want me to :)!) _

_Wow that was long :o_

_Cheers :P _

_~izzy x_


	3. 3 I Get A SneakPeek At My Death

Chapter Three: I Get A Sneak Peek At My Death

_Chapter three, fellas. Thalia's in, as promised (yay!). And just wanted to make a note; at the funny bits, I'm not gunna write that they all laughed or whatever every single time – or when someone makes a funny comment. That would just get boring quickly. So if someone makes a good comment, they are laughing at it, (unless I write otherwise), it's just not written. I don't think you guys would wanna read 'They all laughed' every few lines. I sure won't. -.-_

_Otherwise~ read on!_

Leo was about to start when a call came from the hill some way in front of them. Annabeth looked up and her face split into a wide grin. She stood up as the figure approached.

"Thalia!"

"Hey," Thalia grinned, coming closer and hugging her friend. She looked around interestedly, beamed at Jason and gave him a hug too.

"Thalia, what're you doing here?" he asked in amazement, staring at his sister. Thalia looked over her shoulder to the Hunters, who were standing a way behind.

"Came for a visit, and some updates," she replied, then told her Hunters, "It's okay guys, you can go. I'll be at the cabin soon. Phoebe, can you let Chiron know we're here?"

One of the huntresses – Phoebe – nodded and left with the others, after shooting the many guys in the clearing cold looks.

"So what's up? What are you guys doing?" Thalia asked Annabeth and Jason, looking at the others and noting who was there.

Annabeth led her friend to sit down in the circle and explained about Apollo and the books they'd received and how they'd decided to read them. Then she filled her in on what had happened in the last two chapters.

"Alright, cool," Thalia nodded. She shot the book in Leo's hands a curious look. "So are you continuing?"

"Yep," Leo grinned at her, disregarding the glare, and started reading. He was pretty glad Jason's sister had come; they hadn't had any spare time to hang out last time they met.

**I Get a Sneak Peek at My Death**

"Here it comes," said Connor in a mysterious voice.

**If you want to be popular at Camp Half-Blood, don't come back from a mission with bad news.**

"Nice advice, seeing as he'd know all about it," Travis smirked.

**Word of my arrival spread as soon as I walked out of the ocean.**

**Our beach is on the North Shore of Long Island, it's enchanted so most people can't even see it.** **People don't just**_**appear**_**on the beach unless they're demigods or gods or really, really lost pizza guys. (It's happened – but that's another story.)**

"What?" Leo asked, looking up with a grin.

"One of our siblings' prank call," Travis laughed, remembering the hilarity of that situation.

"I wanna-"

"You can hear it later, Leo," Piper interrupted. He pouted but took the hint.

**Anyway, that afternoon the lookout on duty was Connor Stoll from the Hermes cabin.**

"Oh, crap, that had to be in there…" Connor mumbled, eyes wide. He didn't want the whole world to know he fell out of a _tree_. He was the son of the god of stealth, for Zeus's sake!

"What, something embarrass you, bro?" Travis mocked, shooting him a wicked grin. Leo chuckled and read on anyway.

**When he spotted me, he got so excited he fell out of his tree.**

Everyone either laughed or cracked a grin.

"Smooth, Stoll," Thalia snorted.

Connor was glaring at them all. "I did not fall," he huffed. "I jumped. And landed… with style." His words just caused more laughter.

"Mate, your father's the master of stealth, and you fall out of a tree?" Jake smirked at him good-naturedly.

Travis just cracked up harder at that. He wasn't going to let him live this down. _Stealth, indeed…_

Eventually, making fun of the younger Stoll died down and Leo continued unwillingly, not wanting to hear about this prophecy.

**Then he blew the conch horn to signal the camp and ran to greet me. Connor had a crooked smile that matched his crooked sense of humor.**

"Erm…thanks…I guess?" Connor said uncertainly, not sure whether that was a compliment or not.

"I don't think that was much of a compliment, Connor," Annabeth told him.

He shrugged. "Well I'll take it as one anyway," he said with a grin.

**He's a pretty nice guy,**

Travis faked a coughing fit. "Yeah, _nice_…"

His brother smirked at him. "Dude, you're just jealous."

Travis looked scandalized. "_Jealous_? Why would I want to be called _nice_?"

Pause.

"Touché."

"You two are so weird," Thalia commented.

"Thanks!"

**but you should always keep one hand on your wallet when he's around, and do not, under any circumstances; give him access to shaving cream unless you want to find your sleeping bag full of it.**

"Yeah, he would know about that too," Travis laughed.

"You did that to him?" Jason asked them, an amused smile playing around his lips.

"Hades, yeah, it was hilarious!" Connor grinned.

**He's got curly brown hair and is a little shorter than his brother, Travis, which is the only way I can tell them apart.**

"If it wasn't for that, you two would have pulled so much more tricks," Annabeth said, shaking her head.

The Stolls smirked evilly in return.

**They are both so unlike my old enemy Luke it's hard to believe they're all sons of Hermes.**

And there goes the grins.

"Yeah well, not all sons of Hermes are A-class jackass traitors," Travis shrugged.

"So don't generalize," added Connor.

"Four syllables, not bad Stoll," Jake chuckled, trying to get the mood up. The others snickered and Connor looked mock-proud.

"I know, right."

**"Percy!" he yelled. "What happened? Where's Beckendorf?"**

Leo's grin vanished at the reminder and his voice became a lot less excited.

**Then he saw my expression and his smile melted. "Oh, no. Poor Silena. Holy Zeus, when she finds out…"**

**Together we climbed the sand dunes. A few hundred yards away, people were already streaming towards us, smiling and excited.**

_**Percy's back,**_**they were probably thinking.**_**He's saved the day! Maybe he brought souvenirs!**_

"Who expects souvenirs from someone coming back from a mission?" Piper asked no-one in particular.

**I stopped at the dining pavilion and waited for them. No sense rushing down there to tell them what a loser I was.**

**I gazed across the valley and tried to remember how Camp Half-Blood looked the first time I ever saw it. That seemed like a bajillion years ago.**

**From the dining pavilion, you could see pretty much everything. Hills ringed the valley.** **On the tallest, Half-Blood Hill, Thalia's pine tree stood with the Golden Fleece hanging from its branches.**

Thalia glanced at her tree instinctively, as did Jason, his gaze curious.

**The guard dragon Peleus was so big now I could see him from here – curled around the tree trunk, sending up smoke signals as he snored.**

**To my right spread the woods. To my left, the canoe lake glittered and the climbing wall glowed from the lava pouring down its side. Twelve cabins – one for each Olympian god – made a horseshoe pattern around the commons area. Farther south were the strawberry fields,**

"Which Travis loves staring at," Connor mumbled distinctly. He received a whack upside the head from his brother.

"Shut up!"

A couple of grins broke out from the group.

**the armory and the four-story Big House with its sky blue paint job and its bronze eagle weathervane. In some ways, the camp hadn't changed. But you couldn't see the war by looking at the buildings or the fields. You see it in all the faces of the demigods and satyrs and naiads coming up the hill.**

**There weren't as many at camp as four summers ago. Some had left and never come back. Some had died fighting. Others – we tried not to talk about them – had gone over to the enemy.**

**The ones who were still here were battle-hardened and weary. There was little laughter at camp these days. Even the Hermes cabin didn't play so many pranks. It's hard to enjoy practical jokes when your whole life feels like one.**

"Those were sad days," Connor sighed regrettably.

"Tell me 'bout it," Travis agreed. "No pranks or tricks… horror."

"The gods sure do love making a joke out of our lives," Thalia muttered, to much agreement.

**Chiron galloped into the pavilion first, which was easy for him since he's a white stallion from the waist down. His beard had grown wilder over the summer. He wore a green T-shirt that said My Other Car Is a Centaur and a bow slung over his back.**

**"Percy!" he said. "Thank the gods. But where…"**

**Annabeth rain in right behind him and I'll admit my heart did a little relay race in my chest when I saw her.**

Annabeth couldn't hold back a small sad smile at that. She really did miss him a lot.

**It's not that she tried to look good. We'd been doing so many combat missions lately, she hardly brushed her curly blond hair anymore, and she didn't care what clothes she was wearing – usually the same old orange camp T-shirt and jeans, and once in a while her bronze armor. Her eyes were stormy gray. Most of the time we couldn't get through a conversation without trying to strangle each other. **

Leo's voice grew increasingly amused throughout that, and he grinned at the last line.

"Strangling, yeah, I can really see the love there," Thalia teased her friend.

**Still, just seeing her made me feel fuzzy in the head.**

**Last summer, before Luke had turned into Kronos and everything went sour, there had been a few times when I thought maybe… well, that we might get past the strangle-each-other phase.**

"Did it work?" Thalia asked her, eyebrows raised. Annabeth rolled her eyes, though she was still smiling.

"Not really," she admitted.

**"What happened?" She grabbed my arm. "Is Luke –"**

Annabeth flinched at that inwardly. She shouldn't have said that, but she was feeling so confused at the time.

**"The ship blew up," I said. "He wasn't destroyed. I don't know where –"**

**Silena Beauregard pushed through the crowd. Her hair wasn't combed and she wasn't even wearing makeup, which wasn't like her.**

Piper held her breath. This was the first she'd get to fully hear about her half-sister.

**"Where's Charlie?" she demanded, looking around like he might be hiding.**

**I glanced at Chiron helplessly.**

**The old centaur cleared his throat. "Silena, my dear, let's talk about this at the Big House –"**

**"No," she muttered. "No.**_**No.**_**"**

Leo paused and sent Piper a glance. She was biting her lower lip hard, but at his look sent him a minuscule nod to continue reading.

**She started to cry, and the rest of us stood around, too stunned to speak. We'd already lost so many people over the summer, but this was the worst. With Beckendorf gone, it felt like someone had stolen the anchor for the entire camp.**

"Too true," muttered Jake.

**Finally Clarisse from the Ares cabin came forward. She put her arm around Silena. They had one of the strangest friendships ever – a daughter of the war of god and a daughter of the love goddess – but ever since Silena had given Clarisse advice last summer about her first boyfriend, Clarisse had decided she was Silena's personal bodyguard.**

"Wow, I don't think I would have thought that was really possible," Piper mused.

**Clarisse was dressed in her blood red combat armor, her brown hair tucked into a bandana. She was as big and beefy as a rugby player, with a permanent scowl on her face, but she spoke gently to Silena.**

**"Come on, girl," she said. "Let's get to the Big House. I'll make you some hot chocolate."**

"Why is chocolate the answer to all girls' problems?" Connor asked confusedly, looking at all the girls in the clearing. They stared at him incredulously.

"Dude, you did not just ask that," Leo laughed.

Connor blinked and muttered, "Okay, fine, I didn't. Stop staring at me like I've grown an arm." He huffed, muttering some more about 'over-reacting' and 'don't understand them'.

**Everyone turned and wandered off in twos and threes, heading back to the cabins. Nobody was excited to see me now. Nobody wanted to hear about the blown-up ship.**

**Only Annabeth and Chiron stayed behind.**

**Annabeth wiped a tear from her cheek. "I'm glad you're not dead, Seaweed Brain."**

**"Thanks," I said. "Me too."**

"So touching," said Thalia, trying to lift Annabeth's spirits a bit, seeing as she'd become sadder at hearing this again.

**Chiron put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure you did everything you could, Percy. Will you tell us what happened?"**

**I didn't want to go through it again, but I told them the story, including my dream about the Titans.**

**I left out the detail about Nico. Nico had made me promise not to tell anybody about his plan until I made up my mind and the plan was so scary I didn't mind keeping it a secret.**

"What is the plan?" asked Jason, frowning. Leo had stopped reading and was looking expectantly at the others.

Everyone else looked towards Annabeth. She half-smiled and shook her head. "No, I'm not saying. Just keep reading, it'll come up… eventually…" Her voice trailed off as a thought struck her – _what was she going to do when it got to Percy talking about his Achilles' spot? Would it even be in the book? She couldn't let them all know_…

**Chiron gazed down at the valley. "We must call a war council immediately, to discuss this spy, and other matters."**

**"Poseidon mentioned another threat," I said. "Something even bigger than the**_**Princess Andromeda.**_ **I thought it might be that challenge the Titan had mentioned in my dream."**

**Chiron and Annabeth exchanged looks, like they knew something I didn't. I hated when they did that.**

A chorus of "Same"s and "Yep"s rang out in the clearing, making the campers grin at each other. Annabeth chuckled.

"Well it's not my fault you lot don't catch onto things quickly."

**"We will discuss that also," Chiron promised.**

**"One more thing." I took a deep breath. "When I talked to my father, he said to tell you it's time. I need to know the full prophecy."**

**Chiron's shoulders sagged, but he didn't look surprised. "I've dreaded this day. Very well. Annabeth, we will show Percy the truth – all of it. Let's go to the attic."**

"The… attic?" Leo repeated unsurely, glancing up.

"That's where our… previous Oracle was," Annabeth explained, shooting Rachel a quick glance.

"She… _what_?" He blinked, eyebrows rising.

**I'd been to the Big House attic three times before, which was three times more than I wanted to.**

"I'm so glad I haven't been up there," Thalia commented.

**A ladder led up from the top of the staircase. I wondered how Chiron was going to get up there, being half horse and all, but he didn't try.**

"No duh," said Connor.

**"You know where it is," he told Annabeth. "Bring it down, please."**

**Annabeth nodded. "Come on, Percy."**

**The sun was setting outside, so the attic was even darker and creepier than usual.**

**Old hero trophies were stacked everywhere – dented shields, pickled heads in jars from various monsters, a pair of fuzzy dice on a bronze plaque that read:**_**STOLEN FROM CHRUSAOR'S HONDA CIVIC, BY GUS, SON OF HERMES, 1988.**_

"Yeah! We're that awesome!" Connor cheered and his brother snorted.

"Dude. I don't think you're included in that we."

"Sure I am. You're the one that's not."

"Yeah, right. You just-"

"Will you both quit it," Thalia commanded, glaring at the Stolls. They obediently shut up. She turned her glare towards Leo so he could read.

"Aw," he pouted. It was entertaining watching those two! But he continued, albeit a tad reluctantly.

**I picked up a curved bronze sword so badly bent it looked like the letter 'M'. I could still see green stains on the metal from the magical poison that used to cover it.**

**The tag was dated last summer. It read:**_**Scimitar of Kampê, destroyed in the Battle of the Labyrinth.**_

**"You remember Briares throwing those boulders?" I asked. Annabeth gave me a grudging smile. "And Grover causing a Panic?"**

"Oh yeah, that was awesome," Travis grinned.

"Can you two ever _not _comment on random things?" Annabeth sighed. They smirked.

"Nope."

"Gods help us if we want to finish this book anytime this year," she muttered.

**We locked eyes. I thought of a different time last summer, under Mount St. Helens, when Annabeth thought I was going to die and she kissed me.**

Everyone in the clearing stared at Annabeth, who turned red, silently cursing whoever wrote this book for having that in there.

"You kissed him all the way back then and he _still_ didn't get it?" Thalia exclaimed, starting to laugh.

Annabeth huffed and muttered incoherently under her breath.

"Why was he about to die?" Piper asked, taking the attention off the irritated Annabeth, who shot her a grateful look.

"We were being chased by telkhines," she explained, her face going darker at the memory. "He… told me to go because he had a plan. He ended up blowing up Mount St. Helens." She left it at that – no need to go into any specifics.

**She cleared her throat and looked away. "Prophecy."**

**"Right." I put down the scimitar. "Prophecy."**

**We walked over to the window. On a three-legged stool sat the Oracle – a shriveled female mummy in a tie-dyed dress.** **Tufts of black hair clung to her skull. Glassy eyes stared out of her leathery face. Just looking at her made my skin crawl.**

"That," Leo said, staring at the description. "Sounds freaky."

"She was pretty alarming," Annabeth agreed.

**If you wanted to leave camp during the summer, it used to be you had to come out here to get a quest. This summer that rule had been tossed. Campers left all the time on combat missions.**

"Thank the gods for that," Jake muttered.

**We had no choice if we wanted to stop Kronos.**

**Still, I remembered too well the strange green mist – the Spirit of the Oracle – that lived inside the mummy. She looked lifeless now, but whenever she spoke a prophecy, she moved.**

**Sometimes fog gushed out of her mouth and created strange shapes. Once, she'd even left the attic and taken a little zombie stroll into the woods to deliver a message.**

The campers that had been present at the time of that incident made disgusted faces.

"That so wasn't something I would want to see again," said Connor whole-heartedly.

**I wasn't sure what she'd do for the "Great Prophecy." I had expected her to start tap dancing or something.**

Many of them snorted at the mental image – a prophecy-telling corpse tap-dancing?

**But she just sat there like she was dead – which she was.**

**"I never understood this," I whispered.**

**"What?" Annabeth asked.**

**"Why it's a mummy."**

"That's a good question," Travis mused. "I wonder why I never thought of that."

"Maybe you should learn how to think first?" Leo suggested innocently, receiving an offended glare, amongst the laughs of the others.

**"Percy, she didn't used to be a mummy. For thousands of years the spirit of the Oracle lived inside a beautiful maiden.** **The spirit would be passed on from generation to generation. Chiron told me**_**she**_**was like that fifty years ago." Annabeth pointed at the mummy. "But she was the last."**

Annabeth shuddered now at the knowledge of what had happened to her, from what Percy had told her ages ago.

**"What happened?"**

**Annabeth started to say something, then apparently changed her mind. "Let's just do our job and get out of here."**

"What did happen?" Jason piped up, shooting Annabeth and Rachel a curious glance.

Annabeth shook her head. "It'll come up later, I'm sure. You'll find out then."

**I looked nervously at the Oracle's withered face. "So what now?"**

**Annabeth approached the mummy and held out her palms. "O Oracle, the time is at hand. I ask for the Great Prophecy."**

**I braced myself, but the mummy didn't move. Instead Annabeth approached and unclasped one of its necklaces.**

"That's it?" Travis asked, sounding and looking disappointed.

"Dude, talk about anticlimax!" Connor groaned.

"What did you expect, a tap-dance?" Jake mocked them.

"That would've been cool," Travis agreed.

**I'd never paid too much attention to its jewelry before.** **I figured it was just hippie love beads and stuff.**

"Hippie love-beads," Thalia repeated incredulously. "Why would the oracle wear love-beads?" She snorted.

**But when Annabeth turned toward me, she was holding a leather pouch – like a Native American medicine pouch on a cord braided with feathers.**

**She opened the bag and took out a roll of parchment no bigger than her pinky.**

**"No way," I said. "You mean all these years, I've been asking about this stupid prophecy and it's been right there around her neck?"**

"That's what we were thinking, man," Connor mumbled.

**"The time wasn't right," Annabeth said. "Believe me, Percy, I read this when I was ten years old, and I still have nightmares about it."**

Annabeth grimaced, remembering how much worse it was once she realised the Prophecy might be about Percy…

**"Great," I said. "Can I read it now?"**

**"Downstairs at the war council," Annabeth said. "Not in front of... you know."**

**I looked at the glassy eyes of the Oracle, and I decided not to argue. **

"Why… What would have happened, reading it in front of her?" asked Piper.

"I imagine it wouldn't have been a good idea," Rachel answered, sending Annabeth a questioning look. "It's like… a bad omen. It wouldn't be a safe thing to try out."

The other girl nodded her head in agreement.

**We headed downstairs to join the others.**

**I didn't know it then, but it would be the last time I ever visited the attic.**

"Thanks to Rachel!" Connor cheered.

Rachel chuckled. "You're welcome."

**The senior counselors had gathered around the Ping-Pong table. Don't ask me why, **

"Why?" Travis asked.

"Lame," his brother informed him.

"Show some support, will you?" Travis complained.

"Never!" Connor countered with an evil laugh.

Annabeth sighed, and Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Brotherly love… Connor, Travis, leave it," she added impatiently. They backed off reluctantly.

**but the rec room had become the camp's informal headquarters for war councils.**

**When Annabeth, Chiron and I came in, though, it looked more like a shouting match.**

**Clarisse was still in full battle gear.**

**Her electric spear was strapped to her back. (Actually, her**_**second**_**electric spear, since I'd broken the first one. She called the spear "Maimer." Behind her back, everybody else called it "Lamer.") **

"Nice," Leo grinned.

**She had her boar-shaped helmet under on arm and had a knife at her belt.**

**She was in the midst of yelling at Michael Yew,** t**he new head counselor for Apollo, which looked kind of funny since Clarisse was a foot taller. Michael had taken over the Apollo cabin after Lee Fletcher died in battle last summer.**

"I thought Will Solace is Apollo's head counselor?" asked Leo. The others shook their heads glumly.

"No, Michael was counselor before," Jake said. "But…"

"Oh," Leo caught on and continued reading.

**Michael stood four feet six, with a pointy nose and scrunched-up features – either because he was scowling or because he spent too much time looking down the shaft of an arrow.**

**"It's**_**our**_**loot!" he yelled, standing on his tiptoes so he could get in Clarisse's face. "If you don't like it, you can kiss my quiver!"**

"He had an awesome way with words," Travis said, cracking up.

**Around the table, people were trying not to laugh – the Stoll brothers, Pollux from the Dionysus cabin, Katie Gardner from Demeter.** **Even Jake Mason, the hastily appointed new counselor from Hephaestus, managed a faint smile.**

"Look Jake, you're mentioned!" Connor said in mock-excitement.

Jake snorted. "Wow. I'm so stoked."

"Yeah, you should be," Leo grinned at him. "Now you're famous!"

**Only Silena Beauregard didn't pay any attention. She sat beside Clarisse and stared vacantly at the Ping-Pong net. Her eyes were red and puffy. A cup of hot chocolate sat untouched in front of her.**

**It seemed unfair that she had to be here. I couldn't believe Clarisse and Michael standing over her, arguing about something as stupid as loot, when she'd just lost Beckendorf.**

**"STOP IT!" I yelled. "What are you guys doing?"**

"Good question."

**Clarisse glowered at me. "Tell Michael not to be a selfish jerk."**

**"Oh, that's perfect, coming from you," Michael said.**

**"The only reason I'm here is to support Silena!" Clarisse shouted. "Otherwise I'd be back in my cabin."**

**"What are you talking about?" I demanded.**

**Pollux cleared his throat. "Clarisse has refused to speak to any us, until her, um, issue is resolved. She hasn't spoken for three days."**

**"It's been wonderful," Travis Stoll said wistfully.**

"Look, it's me!"

"I was mentioned before you. Hah, sucker," Connor smirked.

Travis ignored him.

**"What issue?" I asked.**

**Clarisse turned to Chiron. "You're in charge, right? Does my cabin get what we want or not?"**

"They really shouldn't be arguing over petty things like that right now," Piper frowned.

Jason nodded. "True, there's a war around them. They need to work together."

"Unfortunately, the Ares cabin is really stubborn, so it takes them a while to get to their senses," Thalia grimaced. She hadn't heard the full story about this.

**Chiron shuffled his hooves. "My dear, as I've already explained, Michael is correct. Apollo's cabin has the best claim. Besides, we have more important matters –"**

**"Sure," Clarisse snapped. "Always more important matters than what Ares needs. We're just supposed to show up and fight when you need us, and not complain?"**

"I can see where she's coming from," Piper sighed. "But that's still not a reason to fight at this time."

**"That would be nice," Connor Stoll muttered.**

**Clarisse gripped her knife. "Maybe I should ask Mr. D –"**

**"As you know," Chiron interrupted his tone slightly angry now,** **"Our director, Dionysus, is busy with the war. He can't be bothered with this."**

**"I see," Clarisse said. "And the senior counselors? Are**_**any**_**of you going to side with me?"**

**Nobody was smiling now. None of them met Clarisse's eyes.**

**"Fine." Clarisse turned to Silena. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get into this when you've just lost... Anyway, I apologize. To**_**you**_**. Nobody else."**

**Silena didn't seem to register her words.**

**Clarisse threw her knife on the Ping-Pong table. "All of you can fight this war without Ares. Until I get satisfaction, no one in my cabin is lifting a finger to help. Have fun dying."**

"Now that's harsh," Leo winced. "Going to war without the kids of the god of war? Tough."

"You're telling us," Jake grimaced.

**The counselors were all too stunned to say anything as Clarisse stormed out of the room.**

**Finally Michael Yew said, "Good riddance."**

"No, I don't think it is," Jason said quietly.

**"Are you kidding?" Katie Gardner protested. "This is a disaster!"**

**"She can't be serious," Travis said. "Can she?"**

**Chiron sighed. "Her pride has been wounded. She'll calm down eventually." But he didn't sound convinced.**

**I wanted to ask what the heck Clarisse was so mad about, but I looked at Annabeth and she mouthed the words**_**I'll tell you later.**_

**"Now," Chiron continued, "if you please, counselors. Percy has brought something I think you should hear. Percy – the Great Prophecy."**

"That took our minds off the problem real fast," Travis nodded.

**Annabeth handed me the parchment. It felt dry and old, and my fingers fumbled with the string. I uncurled the paper, trying not to rip it,**

"That would be bad," Leo mused. "Then he wouldn't have been able to read it… What a shame." A couple of smiles appeared at the joke.

**and began to read:**

**"**_**A half-blood of the eldest dogs…'**_

"Um… sorry?" Piper cut in, looking both confused and amused, along with Jason, Thalia and Rachel (who hadn't been there).

Leo grinned and read on.

**"Er, Percy?" Annabeth interrupted. "That's**_**gods.**_**Not**_**dogs."**_

**"Oh, right," I said. Being dyslexic is one mark of a demigod, but sometimes I really hate it. The more nervous I am, the worse my reading gets.**

A couple of them chuckled, but Annabeth didn't. And neither did Thalia. They were both thinking about how the prophecy turned out.

_**'A half-blood of the eldest gods… shall reach sixteen against all odds…'**_

**I hesitated, staring at the next lines. A cold feeling started in my fingers as if the paper was freezing.**

_**'And see the world in endless sleep,**_

_**The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap.'**_

"Well, a blade, you could always destroy," Leo shrugged, his mind going to child-of-Hephaestus mode. "Sink it in a vat of burning acid or something…"

Jake grinned in amusement as he remembered saying something similar.

**Suddenly Riptide seemed heavier in my pocket. A cursed blade? Chiron once told me Riptide had brought many people sorrow. Was it possible my own sword could get me killed?**

Annabeth frowned slightly; she actually hadn't thought of Riptide at that line. Her mind had gone straight to Kronos's scythe (or Backbiter – Luke's sword), as she was sure most of the others' did.

**And how could the world fall into endless sleep, unless that meant death?**

**"Percy," Chiron urged. "Read the rest."**

**My mouth felt like it was full of sand, but I spoke the last two lines.**

_**'A single choice shall end his days.**_

_**Olympus to per – pursue –"**_

**"**_**Preserve**_**,"****Annabeth said gently. "It means to**_**save."**_

**"I know what it means," I grumbled. "**_**Olympus to preserve or raze."**_

**The room was silent. Finally Connor Stoll said, "Raise is good, isn't it?"**

**"Not**_**raise**_**,"****Silena said. Her voice was hollow, but I was startled to hear her speak at all. "R-a-z-e means**_**destroy**_**."**

**"Obliterate," Annabeth said. "Annihilate. Turn to rubble."**

"Thanks for making us feel better," Connor said sarcastically.

Annabeth smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, it's a nervous habit."

**"Got it." My heart felt like lead. "Thanks."**

**Everybody was looking at me – with concern, or pity, or maybe a little fear.**

"Fear?" Leo frowned. "I thought he's supposed to be the hero, why would they be looking at him in fear?"

Piper sighed long-sufferingly. "Leo, think about it. According to the prophecy, Percy was supposed to make a decision that would either save or destroy Olympus. What if he made the wrong decision?"

"Right. I knew that."

"Just… read."

**Chiron closed his eyes as if he were saying a prayer. In horse form, his head almost brushed the lights in the rec room.**

**"You see now, Percy, why we thought it best not to tell you the whole prophecy? You've had enough on your shoulders –"**

**"Without realizing I was going to die in the end anyways?" I said. "Yeah, I get it."**

**Chiron gazed at me sadly. The guy was three thousand years old. He'd seen hundreds of heroes die. He might not like it, but he was used to it. He probably knew better than to try to reassure me.**

"Reassurance wouldn't do any good in a situation like that," Jason frowned. He felt like he knew that really well.

**"Percy," Annabeth said. "You know prophecies always have double meanings. It might not literally mean you die."**

"Annabeth, on the other hand, did not," Thalia commented, with a small smile.

**"Sure," I said. "**_**A single choice shall end his days.**_**That has tons of meanings, right?"**

**"Maybe we can stop it," Jake Mason offered.** **"**_**The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap.**_**Maybe we could find the cursed blade and destroy it. Sounds like Kronos's scythe, right?"**

Leo looked up to glare at his brother. "You stole my words!"

"I said them first," Jake countered, raising an eyebrow.

Leo responded by reading on.

**I hadn't thought about that, but it didn't matter if the cursed blade was Riptide or Kronos's scythe. Either way, I doubted we could stop the prophecy.**

"That is true. Whatever you do, you can't completely prevent a prophecy from happening," Rachel said. "It's pretty much set in stone."

**A blade was supposed to reap my soul. As a general rule, I preferred not to have my soul reaped.**

"I think that general rule applies to pretty much everyone," said Thalia lightly.

**"Perhaps we should let Percy think about these lines," Chiron said. "He needs time –"**

**"No." I folded up the prophecy and shoved it into my pocket. I felt defiant and angry, though I wasn't sure who I was angry with. "I don't need time. If I die, I die. I can't worry about that, right?"**

Jason thought over this in his head. Percy definitely seemed like a tough guy. He didn't back down from his responsibilities (or burdens, whichever one the prophecy was) and he didn't get scared off either. Of course, seeing as he remembered next to naught about the Roman camp, he couldn't exactly assess Percy's chances there yet, but it was good he had something to work on.

**Annabeth hands were shaking a little. She wouldn't meet my eyes.**

**"Let's move on," I said. "We've got other problems. We've got a spy."**

**Michael Yew scowled. "A spy?"**

**I told them what had happened on the**_**Princess Andromeda**_**– how Kronos had known we were coming, how he'd shown me the silver scythe pendant he'd used to communicate with someone at camp.**

**Silena started to cry again and Annabeth put an arm around her shoulders.**

Now she flinched slightly. Of course, back then she'd thought it was simply because Silena had lost Beckendorf, but now she knew the real reason…

**"Well," Connor Stoll said uncomfortably, "We've suspected there might be a spy for years, right?** **Somebody kept passing information to Luke – like the location of the Golden Fleece a couple of years ago. It must be somebody who knew him well."**

"Oh my gods he has a brain!" Travis cried in mock-shock. (_hehe, that rhymes.._)

**Maybe subconsciously, he glanced at Annabeth. She'd known Luke better than anyone, of course, but Connor looked away quickly. "Um, I mean, it could be anybody."**

Annabeth raised her eyebrows at him. Connor rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Didn't mean that… it said 'subconsciously'…"

"Don't worry, I get it," Annabeth said, shaking er head.

**"Yes." Katie Gardner frowned at the Stoll brothers. She'd disliked them ever since they'd decorated the grass roof of the Demeter cabin with chocolate Easter bunnies.**

"Seriously?" Leo laughed.

"Yep. Oh the memories," Travis sighed happily.

"Oh the black eyes, you mean?" Connor smirked. Travis flipped him off.

"**Like one of Luke's siblings."**

"That was unfair," said Travis.

"Logical, though, if you think about it," Piper said hesitantly.

The Stolls shrugged. It wasn't true anyway, but they didn't like it.

**Travis and Connor both started arguing with her.**

**"Stop!" Silena banged the table so hard her hot chocolate spilled. "Charlie's dead and... and you're all arguing like little kids!" She put her head down and began to sob.**

**Hot chocolate trickled off the Ping-Pong table. Everybody looked ashamed. "She's right," Pollux said at last. "Accusing each other doesn't help.** **We need to keep our eyes open for a sliver necklace with a scythe charm. If Kronos had one, the spy probably does too."**

"Remind me again how he's related to Mr. D?" said Jake wryly.

**Michael Yew grunted. "We need to find this spy before we plan our next operation. Blowing up the**_**Princess Andromeda**_**won't stop Kronos forever."**

"Unfortunately."

**"No indeed," Chiron said. "In fact his next assault is already on the way."**

**I scowled. "You mean the 'bigger threat' Poseidon mentioned?"**

**He and Annabeth looked at each other like,**_**it's time.**_**Did I mention I hate it when they do that?**

Annabeth's lips turned up in half a smile. "Only a couple of times."

**"Percy," Chiron said, "we didn't want to tell you until you returned to camp. You needed a break with your… mortal friends."**

**Annabeth blushed. It dawned on me that she I'd been hanging out with Rachel, and I felt guilty.** **Then I felt angry that I felt guilty. **

"Confusing, much?" Connor said, frowning.

"Too much for your brain to handle?" Leo asked him in mock-concern, causing the others to laugh.

**I was allowed to have friends outside camp, right? It wasn't like…**

**"Tell me what's happened," I said.**

**Chiron picked up a bronze goblet from the snack table. He tossed water onto the hot plate were he usually melted nacho cheese. Steam billowed up, making a rainbow in the fluorescent lights.**

**Chiron fished a golden drachma out of his pouch, tossed it through the mist, and muttered, "O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, show us the threat."**

**The mist shimmered. I saw the familiar image of a smoldering volcano – Mount St. Helens. As I watched, the side of the mountain exploded. Fire, ash, and lava rolled out.**

**A newscaster's voice was saying "-**_**even larger than last year's eruption, and geologists warn that the mountain may not be done."**_

**I knew about last year's eruption. I'd caused it. But this explosion was much worse. The mountain tore itself apart, collapsing inward, and an enormous form rose out of the smoke and lava like it was emerging from a manhole.**

**I hoped the Mist would keep the humans from seeing it clearly,** **because what I saw would've caused panic and riots across the entire United States.**

"What they saw was already enough to cause panic across the US," Thalia muttered. "We didn't need them to see anything more for that."

**The giant was bigger than anything I'd ever encountered. Even my demigod eyes couldn't make out its exact form through the ash and fire, but it was vaguely humanoid and so huge it could have used the Chrysler Building as a baseball bat.**

**The mountain shook with a horrible rumbling, as if the monster was laughing.**

"Freaky," said Leo, eyes wide.

**"It's him," I said. "Typhoon."**

**I was seriously hoping Chiron would say something good, like**_**No, that's our huge friend Leroy! He's going to help us!**_

"That would've been helpful," Rachel said, eyebrows rising.

"As if Percy's luck is that good," Thalia grimaced.

**But no such luck.**

"There you go."

**He simply nodded. "The most horrible monster of all, the biggest single threat the gods ever face. **

"Biggest? So Kronos wasn't their biggest threat?" Jason asked, looking surprised.

"No, Typhoon was definitely worse," Annabeth replied, shaking her head. "In the olden days, he was the one-"

"Can you tell us after this chapter's finished?" Connor groaned, not bothered for a history lesson on the gods and their threats. Annabeth glared at him.

**He has been freed under the mountain at last.** **But this scene is from two days ago.**

"Well, that's comforting," Leo said sarcastically.

_**Here**_**is what is happening today." Chiron waved his hand and the image changed. I saw a bank of storm clouds rolling across the Midwest plains. Lightning flickered. Lines of tornadoes destroyed everything in their path – ripping up houses and trailers, tossing cars around like Matchbox toys.**

_**"Monumental floods,"**_**an announcer was saying. "**_**Five states declared disaster areas as the freak storm system sweeps east, continuing its path of destruction."**_**The cameras zoomed in on a column of storm bearing down on some Midwest City.**

"So that's what all that was about," Piper mused to herself. She'd been wondering what was going on that time,

**I couldn't tell which one. Inside the storm I could see the giant – just small glimpses of his true form: a smoky arm, a dark clawed hand the size of a city block.**

**Other smaller forms darted through the clouds, circling the monster.**

"The gods?" Jason asked.

"Yeah."

**I saw flashes of light, and I realized the giant was trying to swarm them. I squinted and thought I saw a golden chariot flying into the blackness.** **The some kind of huge bird – a monstrous owl – dived in to attack the giant.**

"Apollo and Athena," Annabeth muttered.

**"Are those… the gods?" I said.**

**"Yes, Percy," Chiron said. "They have been fighting him for days now, trying to slow him down. But Typhoon is marching forward – toward New York. Toward Olympus."**

**I let that sink in. "How long until he gets here?"**

**"Unless the gods can stop him? Perhaps five days. Most of the Olympians are there... except your father, who has a war of his own to fight."**

"That's bad," Piper grimaced. "They must have needed all the help they could get."

"They did," Annabeth nodded.

**"But then who's guarding Olympus?"**

**Connor Stoll shook his head. "If Typhoon gets to New York, it won't matter who's guarding Olympus."**

**I thought about Kronos's words on the ship:**_**I would love to see the terror in your eyes when you realize how I will destroy Olympus.**_ **Was this what he was talking about: an attack by Typhoon?**

"That's just half of it," Thalia frowned.

"I can imagine," Jason grimaced. "Kronos would have chucked everything he had at the gods to keep them from saving Olympus…"

**It was sure terrifying enough. But Kronos was always following us, misdirecting our attention. This seemed too obvious for him. And in my dreams, the golden Titan had talked about several more challenges to come, as if Typhoon were only the first.**

**"It's a trick," I said. "We have to warn the gods. Something else is going to happen."**

**Chiron looked at me gravely. "Something worse than Typhoon? I hope not."**

**"We have to defend Olympus," I insisted. "Kronos has another attack planned."**

**"He did," Travis Stoll reminded me, "But you sunk his ship."**

**Everyone was looking at me. They wanted some good news. They wanted to believe that at least I'd give them a little bit of hope.**

"Well at least he didn't dash our hopes away completely," Travis shrugged.

"But wouldn't it have been better for you all to be on you guard more?" Rachel asked.

"It would," Annabeth agreed. "But after such a loss to the Camp, we couldn't have made it worse by telling everyone the ship might have been a ploy… not after all that."

"That wouldn't have been good for morale at that moment," Jake muttered, remembering how beat up they all were about Beckendorf's death.

**I glanced at Annabeth.** **I could tell we were thinking the same thing: What if the**_**Princess Andromeda**_**was a ploy?** **What if Kronos**_**let**_**us blow up the ship so we'd lower our guard? But I wasn't going to say that in front of Silena. Her boyfriend had sacrificed himself for that mission.**

**"Maybe you're right," I said, though I didn't believe it.**

**I tried to imagine how things could get much worse.**

"Don't think that Seaweed Brain," Thalia groaned. "That'll just jinx things."

**The gods were in the Midwest fighting a huge monster that had almost defeated them once before.** **Poseidon was under siege and losing a war against the sea Titan Oceanus.**

"Nice to know how much faith he has in the gods," Rachel chuckled, shaking her head.

**Kronos was still out there somewhere. Olympus was virtually undefended. The demigods of Camp Half-Blood were on our own with a spy in our midst.**

**Oh, and according to the ancient prophecy, I was going to die when I turned sixteen – which happened to be in five days, the exact same time Typhoon was supposed to hit New York. Almost forgot that.**

"Yeah, that's such a minor detail compared to the other problems," Travis said sarcastically.

"It's actually one of the biggest concerns, seeing as the war would've taken a drastic turn if anything happened to him..." Annabeth corrected.

Travis rolled his eyes to show he wasn't being serious.

**"Well," Chiron said, "I think that's enough for the night."**

**He waved his hand and the steam dissipated. The stormy battle of Typhoon and the gods disappeared.**

**"That's an understatement," I muttered.**

**And the war council adjourned**

"And that's enough for us too, right?" Leo asked, shutting the book.

"Yes, I think so," Annabeth said, standing up, along with the others. She took the book from Leo and added, "We'll meet here tomorrow, same time?"

"Sure," Piper smiled.

_Well, there's that done. This one killed me in some bits. D: Sorry it took such a long time, school argh %*$%& (I'm finishing this off instead of studying for my maths test and doing my enlgish project now, so you should be happy. :P)_

_And what about Thalia? :D Please tell me (in a review-cough-) if I've got her character right or what's wrong if I haven't. :)_

_Oh, by the way, there's some reviews that have questions and I want to reply, but they're not from an account! D: And then it bugs me 'cause every time I see that review I'll want to reply but then I remember again that I can't. ._. So if you're expecting a reply, make sure you're signed in…_

_Okay, that's all. No idea when the next update will be, 'cause I have stuff to study for seeing as I'm pretty much failing bio and maths (god help me.). _

_Reviews are the best. (-hinthint-) Oh the subtleness… Seriously though, reviews are like… snuggling up under the covers wearing a super-comfy hoodie and with the heater on reading PJO in winter. ;D In other words – AWESOMENESS. So thank you for all reviewers! :D And favourite'rs too!_

_3 you guys~_

_Izzy x_


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